Ministry decision regarding stipend disbursement to hit digital innovation

Staff Reporter :
A recent decision of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to disburse stipend funds through a single operator frustrates students and guardians and will hit the growth of mobile financial service (MFS) innovation.
The ministry recently has approved a proposal to renew the agreement with Nagad Limited to disburse the stipends for the fiscal year 2022-2023, although guardians of the students want to get the service through their preferred MFS.
Meanwhile, sources said, the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) on December 5 sent a letter to the Primary and Mass Education Ministry urging to revise the primary education stipend guidelines before renewing the agreement with Nagad.
Many guardians of primary students said they are frustrated at this move as they are forced to open accounts with a particular MFS operator to receive stipend money.This has also created widespread criticism among industry experts and school teachers and also frustrated many guardians who normally receive stipend funds through MFS operators of their choice and recently have been advised by some MFS agents to open Nagad accounts.
“We don’t feel confident transacting money through Nagad as it has no valid licence and many of us faced

troubles receiving stipend money through this channel”, said two guardians of students of a school in Rangpur on condition of anonymity.
In previous years, hundreds of guardians had a bitter experience while receiving the stipend money through Nagad. As it was the only MFS to disburse the stipend, each parent was forced to open a new Nagad account to withdraw the stipend money.
But these parents opened accounts with MFS operators of their choice to receive stipend money and the ministry uploaded all data in its MIS accordingly. Disbursement of stipend has already been made properly through EFT.
“Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has a good intention to promote MFS innovation to build a smart Bangladesh. But selecting a singles MFS operator will malign her good intention”, said a headmaster of a school in Cumilla on condition of anonymity. “It should be stopped immediately”.
“We were forced to open a Nagad account to withdraw the stipend against our will. We urge the government to allow us to receive funds through MFS channel of our choice,” said Mossarraf Hossain, a guardian living in Chandpur.
The ministry’s decision to disburse stipend funds through only Nagad channel also violates its stipend-disbursing guideline published in February last. Section 8 of “Guidelines for Implementation of Primary Education Stipend Programme, 2021”, states that the stipend money would be disbursed through the MFS preferred by the guardian of the student.
Official sources said the guidelines prepared by the ministry initially kept provisions to disburse the stipends money through any MFS like bKash, Rocket and Nagad.But the ministry later made a U-turn from its own decision, instructing the DPE to renew the agreement with Nagad to disburse the stipends.
The ministry’s secretary, however, gave an opinion in favour of distributing the stipends through any MFS preferred by the guardians.The secretary also mentioned in his note that the question will be raised if there is a single MFS and it will create unnecessary controversy.
The latest decision has been taken not by a consensus decision of concerned officials and stakeholders, sources said.
The state minister of the ministry mentioned in his note that approval to renew the agreement with Nagad was given as per the agreement of December 13, 2020. He also mentioned that the stipend implementation guideline can be revised.