The High Court (HC) on Thursday declared a government policy guideline, which was designed to restrain the coaching business, legal. The policy, framed in 2012, prohibited teachers of both government and private educational institutions from getting involved in coaching business.
An HC bench comprising Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil came up with the decision after hearing five separate writ petitions including three pleas challenging the government policy of 2012 to stop coaching business at all the government and private academic institutions.
The government's "Policy 2012" stipulates that teachers can provide services at their residence to a maximum of 10 students belonging to other institutions, but only after the teacher's school and the student's school authorised it.
In such cases, the teachers will have to submit to their bosses the names, roll numbers and other information of the students they want to tutor, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Md Mokhlesur Rahman told journalists after the verdict.
They are barred from tutoring private students of their own institution. They can also take supplementary classes at schools in exchange for a fee determined by the Ministry of Education.
In such cases, the policy also set the maximum tuition fees-Tk 300 in the capital, Tk 200 in the district towns and Tk 150 in the upazila level-can be charged from the students.
However, the chief of the concerned institutions can exempt a poor student from the coaching fees. A teacher will have to conduct at least 12 tuition classes a month comprising highest 40 students in a batch.
According to the Policy-2012, the governing body of educational institutions can take action against any teacher for running coaching classes without its permission.
Following the court order, no teacher can directly be involved with any coaching centre operating commercially, the DAG said.
The court also observed that the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has the jurisdiction to investigate into coaching business. But the anti graft watchdog should have a priority list about its tasks, as it has not enough manpower to look into everything.
ACC has no scope to go for small scale investigation into Customs houses, banks, ports and land offices as there are large scale corruption allegations against these sectors. These sectors should get priority in ACC's investigation, the court observed.
The ACC in an investigation in 2017 found 97 teachers, from eight schools and colleges, running coaching centres in violation of the government policy, and requested the Cabinet Division to take action against them.
The government announced the policy titled 'Policy-2012 to stop teachers from doing coaching business in educational institutes' on June 20, 2012.
Earlier on January 27, the court fixed February 7 for passing its judgment after hearing the writ petitions and rule issued earlier in this regard.
During hearing of case, the HC heard opinion of two amici curiae: former Attorney General Hasan Arif and noted jurist Fida M Kamal. Both of them elaborated the negative and positive impacts of the coaching business in their deliberations before the court.
Deputy Attorney General Md Mokhlesur Rahman took part in the hearing on behalf of the state while Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan and Barrister Tania Amir on behalf of ACC and the petitioners respectively.
