The government has increased the maximum age limit for applying to government jobs to 32 years.The decision was made at a meeting of the interim government’s advisory council, chaired by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, according to a press release issued by the Cabinet Division on Thursday.
The ordinance was approved following discussions in the advisory council meeting.
The ordinance, titled “Maximum Age Limit for Direct Recruitment in Government, Autonomous, Semi-Autonomous, Statutory Authorities, Public Non-Financial Corporations, and Autonomous Organisations, 2024,” was passed during the advisory council meeting.
The move follows recommendations made by a review committee, which had earlier proposed raising the age limit to 35 years for men and 37 years for women. However, the committee did not suggest changes to the retirement age.
On September 30, the government formed a committee to address demands for an increase in the entry age limit for government jobs. The committee was chaired by Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, the former secretary and head of the public administration reform commission.
Currently, the general age limit for entering government jobs is set at 30, with a limit of 32 for children of war heroes under the quota system.
In recent years, university graduates have been pushing for an extension of the job entry age to 35, staging protests at Shahbagh intersection on multiple occasions.
The protests escalated after the government declared on September 22 that it had no plans to change the age limit.
In response to the growing pressure, the advisory council has now set 32 years as the maximum age for entry into all cadres of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS).
This revised age limit will also apply to all other government jobs outside the BCS framework.
For autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, the age restriction will follow their respective recruitment policies, with necessary amendments as required.
However, the recruitment rules for Defense Services and Law and Order Forces will remain unchanged, adhering to their established guidelines, according to the press release.
Additionally, the Ministry of Public Administration will amend the “Bangladesh Civil Service (Age, Qualification, and Examination) Rules, 2014” in line with this ordinance and the authority granted by Section 59 of the “Government Employment Act, 2018.”
New limit on BCS attempts
The new ordinance also imposes a cap on the number of attempts candidates can make at the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) Examination. Under the new rules, applicants will be allowed to sit for the exam a maximum of three times. Currently, there is no such restriction in place, allowing candidates to appear multiple times.
This decision is expected to bring significant changes to the competitive government job sector, addressing the long-standing demands for an age extension, while also imposing new limits on examination attempts.
