The government has amended its teacher recruitment rules for government primary schools, removing the newly created posts of assistant teacher (music) and assistant teacher (physical education) less than two months after introducing them, according to a gazette published by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education on Sunday, 2 November 2025.
The August 28 “Government Primary School Teacher Recruitment Rules, 2025” had originally outlined four categories of teachers: head teacher, assistant teacher, assistant teacher (music) and assistant teacher (physical education). The revised rules now retain only head teacher and general assistant teacher, deleting the two specialist roles.
The U-turn follows weeks of pressure from several religion-based political groups that publicly demanded cancellation of music-teacher recruitment and, instead, called for hiring religious instructors—warning of agitation if the plan went ahead.
Multiple local outlets reported the change after the ministry issued the amended gazette on Sunday, confirming the two posts had been dropped and that terminological adjustments were made to the August framework.
The initial push to add specialist music and physical education teachers had drawn support from child-development advocates and rights groups, who argued creative arts and structured activity are important for early learning. In mid-September, the legal advocacy group Ain o Salish Kendra called attempts to scrap music-teacher recruitment “unacceptable,” framing the demand as politically motivated.
With the rollback now formalized, attention shifts to how the ministry will meet previously stated goals for arts and physical activity in the primary curriculum without dedicated posts—an open question amid ongoing debate over the role of creative subjects in Bangladesh’s public education system.