The interim government has explained its decision to cancel the posts of assistant teachers for music and physical education in government primary schools.

A statement issued by the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing on Tuesday night said the decision was reviewed following recommendations from the Secretary Committee.

Initially, the government had planned to appoint an equal number of music and physical education teachers across 2,500 school clusters. However, the Secretary Committee advised against it, citing flaws in the project design.

The committee observed that appointing such a small number of teachers would not yield any significant results in the primary education system and might instead create inequality.

Bangladesh currently has 65,569 government primary schools, and implementing the plan across such a large number of institutions was deemed impractical. If teachers were appointed on a cluster basis, one teacher would have to cover over 20 schools simultaneously, making it impossible to manage working hours effectively, the committee noted.

The committee further suggested that new teaching positions for such subjects could be created in the future, subject to fund availability, to ensure equal access in all schools.

The cancellation came amid objections raised by some religion-based groups against the creation of the two posts, which has sparked criticism from various quarters.