Bridging the Great Divide: Protecting Bangladesh’s Technical Backbone and Diploma Engineers
Engineers frame a nation’s development dreams.
Every highway, bridge, power grid, water network, and industrial setup requires engineering expertise from inception to execution.
Yet, Bangladesh’s technical sector remains crippled by a historic, 60-year division between Degree Engineers and Diploma Engineers. Instead of fostering institutional synergy, systemic discrimination continues to undermine diploma professionals, jeopardizing national infrastructure and demoralizing hundreds of thousands of technical graduates.
To understand this impasse, one must recognize the distinct roles engineered into technical education. Degree engineers are primarily desk engineers—trained for high-level planning, research, design, and management.
Diploma engineers are field engineers—responsible for direct execution, site supervision, repair, and operational maintenance. Both functions are complementary; neither can build a nation in isolation.
However, ongoing institutional friction led to the founding of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) on November 8, 1970.
Established on the core philosophy of “protecting national interests while upholding individual rights,” IDEB was created to safeguard diploma engineers from systemic marginalization while enhancing technical research and professional skills.
From its inception, IDEB has operated as a non-political professional body dedicated to national service—a legacy rooted in its active participation during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.
IDEB allocates 75 percent of its efforts directly toward national development and public welfare, reserving the remaining 25 percent for member support.
A foundational principle handed down by our founding members remains vital today: “Politics, without technological thought, is a tool for oppression.”
If policymakers ignore technology and fail to optimize technical human resources, governance stalls and development suffers.
Throughout its history, IDEB has offered critical technical research to the state. IDEB advocated against over-extracting deep tube-well water due to depleting groundwater tables, proposing sustainable surface-water utilization instead.
IDEB also recommended decentralized, smaller-scale power generation over sole reliance on massive bulk generators to prevent widespread national grid blackouts.
Key structural recognitions for diploma engineers historically came through decisive government actions. In 1978, under Martyred President Ziaur Rahman, a landmark Government Order (GO) designated the title of Sub-Assistant Engineer (SAE) at the entry-level 10th grade exclusively for diploma engineers, creating a 33 percent merit-and-experience promotion quota to Assistant Engineer (9th grade).
Later, in 1994, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia elevated Diploma Engineers to Class Two Officer status, reinforcing the 10th grade as their minimum entry rank and approving an annual government research grant for IDEB that continues today.
Despite these established frameworks, recent administrative proposals and vindictive attitudes threaten to undo decades of progress:
Entry-Grade Contradictions: Recent efforts seek to strip diploma engineers of career progression from 10th grade to 9th grade, while simultaneously suggesting that degree engineers enter service at the 10th grade. Pushing degree holders into 10th, 12th, or 13th-grade field-execution posts reflects an alarming waste of public resources and creates structural friction.
Deprivation of Professional Titles: Proposals attempting to strip diploma engineers of the right to use the “Engineer” title ignore their hands-on qualifications and operational leadership across state infrastructure.
Unplanned Engineering Education: Unregulated expansion of engineering degrees across private and general universities has created a severe workforce imbalance. State funds spent training degree engineers are wasted when graduates end up underemployed or accepting low-grade administrative roles out of desperation.
Diploma engineers are not asking for unearned entry at the 7th, 8th, or 9th grades. Our stance remains firm: diploma engineers will enter as Sub-Assistant Engineers at the 10th grade and ask only for fair, unhindered career progression based on performance and service.
Instead of disruptive strikes, IDEB has consistently chosen constructive, nation-first forms of protest—such as working an extra hour per day to demonstrate commitment while signaling dissatisfaction.
However, escalating frustration among polytechnic students and practicing professionals risks overflowing into broader street protests if administrative hostility persists.
IDEB calls upon the government and leadership at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) to engage in constructive, high-level dialogue:
Conduct a National Needs Assessment: Align degree and diploma engineering enrollments with actual national economic and field requirements to eliminate unemployment and underemployment.
Protect Career Pathways: Preserve the 10th-grade Sub-Assistant Engineer entry status and restore the 33 percent promotional pathway to 9th-grade Assistant Engineer positions for experienced diploma professionals.
Preserve IDEB Autonomy: Ensure that the leadership and governance of IDEB—representing over 800,000 diploma engineers and students—remain strictly in the hands of diploma engineers.
Foster TVET Skills Culture: Expand continuous, transformative Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure skills match evolving industrial demands.
An engineer’s signature on a design or field approval carries immense real-world weight—it seals public safety, national expenditure, and future infrastructure resilience. Both degree and diploma engineers belong to the same national engineering family.
Ending vindictive rumors, ending career blockades, and standing against poor-quality, cost-overrun projects will allow all engineers to focus on what matters most: building a prosperous Bangladesh.
(The writer is Convener, IDEB Interim
Committee)
