Dhaka: Some 45,000 posts of teacher are lying vacant in primary schools across the country, Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman told Parliament on Thursday.

“A total of 17,615 posts of headmaster and 27,388 posts of assistant teacher remain vacant in primary schools,” he said replying to a tabled question from ruling Awami League MP Laila Arjuman Banu (Women-8).

Of the vacant posts of headmaster, 8,736 vacant posts are in government primary schools, while 8,255 in nationalised primary schools and the remaining 624 have been created under a project taken to set up 1,500 new schools, he said.

Of the vacant posts of assistant teacher, 17,298 posts are in the government primary schools, while 3,960 posts in the pre-primary level of the schools, 3,278 posts in the nationalized primary schools and 2,852 posts created under the project of establishment of 15,00 schools, he added.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said some 5,574 non-government secondary schools have no necessary physical infrastructures in the country.

With a view to ensuring congenial atmosphere for education, the process of preparing a project is on under the Education Engineering Department of the Education Ministry to construct physical infrastructures in the schools, he said replying to a tabled question from AL MP Mouazzam Hossain Ratan (Sunamganj-1).

In reply to an unstarred question from the ruling party MP Md Israfil Alam (Naogaon-6), the Education Minister said the drafting of the education bill is now at final stage to implement the National Education Policy 2010.

“The draft education bill will be sent to the cabinet soon for its approval,” he said.