Bridging the great divide: Protecting BD’s tech backbone, diploma engineers

Engineers shape a nation’s development ambitions. Every highway, bridge, power grid, water network and industrial facility requires engineering expertise from planning and design to implementation and maintenance.

Yet Bangladesh’s technical sector remains divided by a historic, 60-year gap between Degree Engineers and Diploma Engineers. Instead of promoting institutional cooperation, systemic discrimination continues to undermine diploma professionals, putting national infrastructure at risk and demoralising hundreds of thousands of technical graduates.

To understand this impasse, it is important to recognise the distinct roles within technical education. Degree engineers are primarily desk engineers, trained in high-level planning, research, design and management. Diploma engineers are field engineers, responsible for direct execution, site supervision, repair and operational maintenance.

These functions are complementary. Neither group can build a nation effectively in isolation.
Institutional friction over these roles contributed to the founding of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) on November 8, 1970.

Established on the principle of “protecting national interests while upholding individual rights”, IDEB was created to safeguard diploma engineers from systemic marginalisation while promoting technical research and professional skills.

From its inception, IDEB has operated as a non-political professional organisation dedicated to national service. Its legacy is also rooted in its active participation during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

IDEB allocates 75 per cent of its efforts directly towards national development and public welfare, while the remaining 25 per cent is devoted to member support.

A foundational principle handed down by the organisation’s founding members remains relevant today: “Politics, without technological thought, is a tool for oppression.” When policymakers ignore technology and fail to make effective use of technical human resources, governance suffers and development is hindered.

Throughout its history, IDEB has provided technical research and recommendations to the state. It advocated against excessive extraction of deep-tube-well water amid declining groundwater levels and proposed greater use of surface water as a sustainable alternative.

IDEB also recommended decentralised, smaller-scale power generation instead of relying solely on large bulk generators, arguing that such an approach could help prevent widespread blackouts across the national grid.

Important steps towards recognising diploma engineers came through government decisions at different times.

In 1978, under Martyred President Ziaur Rahman, a landmark government order designated the position of Sub-Assistant Engineer (SAE), at the entry-level 10th grade, exclusively for diploma engineers. It also created a 33 per cent merit-and-experience promotion quota for advancement to Assistant Engineer at the 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, which continues today.

Despite these established frameworks, recent administrative proposals and what the organisation describes as vindictive attitudes threaten to reverse decades of progress.

One concern involves entry-grade contradictions. Recent efforts seek to remove the career progression of diploma engineers from the 10th grade to the 9th grade, while simultaneously suggesting that degree engineers enter service at the 10th grade.

Placing degree holders in 10th, 12th or 13th-grade field-execution positions, the argument goes, would waste public resources and create structural friction within the engineering workforce.

Another concern is the proposed restriction on diploma engineers using the title “Engineer”. Such proposals, the organisation argues, overlook the practical qualifications and operational responsibilities of diploma engineers across the country’s infrastructure system.

The unplanned expansion of engineering education is another major concern. The uncontrolled growth of engineering degree programmes across private and general universities has created a serious imbalance in the labour market.

Public resources invested in training degree engineers may be wasted when graduates remain underemployed or are forced to accept lower-grade administrative positions because of limited opportunities.

Diploma engineers are not seeking unearned entry at the seventh, eighth or ninth grades. Their position, according to IDEB, is that diploma engineers should enter the service as Sub-Assistant Engineers at the 10th grade and receive fair and unhindered career progression based on performance and experience.
Rather than resorting to disruptive strikes, IDEB has traditionally pursued what it considers constructive, nation-first forms of protest. These have included working an additional hour each day to demonstrate commitment while signalling dissatisfaction.

However, growing frustration among polytechnic students and practising professionals could spill over into broader street protests if administrative hostility continues.

IDEB is calling on the government and the leadership of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) to engage in constructive, high-level dialogue.

It proposes a national needs assessment to align degree and diploma engineering enrolments with actual economic and field requirements and reduce unemployment and underemployment.

It also calls for the protection of established career pathways, including the 10th-grade Sub-Assistant Engineer entry status and the restoration of the 33 per cent promotional pathway to 9th-grade Assistant Engineer positions for experienced diploma professionals.

The organisation further seeks protection of IDEB’s autonomy, arguing that its leadership and governance, representing more than 800,000 diploma engineers and students, should remain in the hands of diploma engineers.

It also calls for expansion of continuous and transformative Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure that technical skills keep pace with changing industrial requirements.

An engineer’s signature on a design or field approval carries significant real-world responsibility. It affects public safety, national expenditure and the resilience of future infrastructure.

Both degree and diploma engineers belong to the same national engineering family. Ending what the organisation describes as vindictive rumours, removing career barriers and opposing poor-quality and cost-overrun projects would allow engineers across both streams to focus on what matters most: building a prosperous Bangladesh.