The government will set aside around Tk 500 crore in the next budget to bring new private secondary educational institutions under the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) scheme which has been suspended for the last seven years.

However, the number of institutions to be included in the coverage is yet to be finalised.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith last month hinted that around 1,000 new institutions would be enlisted, but a top finance ministry official dealing with the issue yesterday said this number would be the highest ceiling.

"Criteria will have to be set as to which institutions will get the MPO and how the facility would be given and on the basis of which policy. It also requires the prime minister's approval," he told The Daily Star preferring anonymity.

Education ministry officials said the finance ministry is yet to inform them about the allocation. Once they are notified, they will prepare a list of eligible institutions. Primary work to this end has already been done, they said.

"It all now depends on the allocation. Once we know it, we will be able to figure out how many institutions are to be included in the MPO system," Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told The Daily Star.

He said the MPO would be given as per the existing policy, which might have to be revised if the finance ministry attaches some conditions to it.

The MPO is the government's share in the payroll of non-government educational institutions. Under it, the government gives 100 percent basic salaries and small monthly allowances to the teachers of non-government schools.

As per the rules, an educational institution comes under the MPO scheme first and then the government includes the teachers of that institution in the payroll.

More than four lakh teachers and employees of 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutes are now getting the MPO facilities.

The government allocated Tk 8,614 crore in the current fiscal year for the MPO. The allocation was Tk 8,593 crore in the previous year.

After a suspension by the then BNP-led alliance government for around six years, the MPO facility was revived by the Awami League-led government in 2010 as part of its electoral pledges.

A total of 1,624 secondary and higher secondary private schools and colleges were also included in the MPO.

But no new school has been brought under it since then.

Teachers and employees of government-recognised, non-government educational institutions have been demanding resumption of the MPO facilities for the last several years and have demonstrated for it in Dhaka on at least 20 occasions.

In December last year and January this year, several thousand teachers of non-government institutions under the banner of different teacher's organisation took to the streets, observing hunger strike in front of the capital's National Press Club pressing for the same demand. They withdrew the strike on January 5 upon the PM's assurance.

According to leaders of Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation, there are 5,242 non-MPO educational institutions, where around 80,000 teachers work without any pay, some for more than a decade.

Before the announcement of the budget every year, a significant number of lawmakers raise demands in parliament for including more institutions in the MPO and increasing allocations for the purpose.

The finance minister, however, stresses the need for bringing reforms to the MPO-listed institutions as well as the policy before making new inclusions.

Muhith even said the MPO enlistment was stalled as the education ministry never took any steps to reform the existing MPO policy despite his suggestions and insistence.

"I have been trying to recast the MPO system for the last 10 years... but my efforts did not see any success. The education ministry thinks it is a safe arrangement [the way the MPO enlistment is being done] for them," he said at a pre-budget discussion on May 9.

Teachers, meanwhile, demanded the government follows the policy while enlisting the institutions for MPO.

"We saw a sheer politicisation in the MPO process last time [in 2010] when a number of institutions chosen by the lawmakers were included in the scheme. Therefore, many eligible institutions were excluded despite fulfilling all the criteria," said a teacher from Bogra, preferring anonymity.

“We don't want repetition this time. We want the eligible institutions get the MPO, not the ones on the political considerations," he said.