1,14,000 retired teachers, staff to get long-awaited benefits today

The government is set to begin disbursing long-overdue retirement benefits to around 114,000 retired teachers and employees of MPO-listed private educational institutions across Bangladesh on Saturday, in a major move to ease a longstanding financial backlog.

The nationwide payment programme will begin simultaneously in all 64 districts. The formal inauguration is scheduled to take place at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka.

Under the programme, around 70,000 beneficiaries of the Non-Government Teachers’ and Employees’ Retirement Benefits Board and nearly 44,000 beneficiaries of the Teachers’ and Employees’ Welfare Trust will receive their dues.

The government has allocated nearly Tk 2,100 crore as a special block grant for the initiative. Of the amount, about Tk 1,500 crore has been earmarked for the retirement benefits board and Tk 600 crore for the welfare trust.

Officials said the initiative aims to ease the hardship of retired teachers and employees who have been waiting for years to receive their legitimate benefits.

For the first time on this scale, payments will be made directly to beneficiaries’ bank accounts through the government’s iBAS++ system, reducing the scope for intermediaries and strengthening transparency in the disbursement process.

According to the retirement benefits board, efforts are underway to settle around 70,115 applications submitted by teachers and employees who retired between January 2022 and June 2026. The welfare trust, meanwhile, has about 44,000 applications submitted between April 2023 and June 30, 2026.

Both institutions have struggled with a growing backlog as their regular income has failed to keep pace with the volume of claims. Officials estimate that clearing all pending applications would require more than Tk 12,000 crore—over Tk 9,000 crore for the retirement benefits board and more than Tk 3,000 crore for the welfare trust.

While the latest allocation will provide substantial relief to a large number of retirees, officials acknowledge that additional government funding will be needed to fully clear the accumulated backlog.