The Primary and Mass Education Ministry has stepped back from a decision to charge separate examination fees to students in grades three through five at government primary schools. As a result of the move, young children at primary level will no longer have to pay any additional fee to sit their exams. The government took the policy decision to preserve the principle of free primary education and to ease financial pressure on parents, the ministry said.
Confirming the matter, Mahdi Amin, the prime minister’s adviser on education and primary and mass education, said the government held a policy position against collecting fees from students for exams at government primary schools. Education Minister A.N.M. Ehsanul Haque Milon would soon be briefed on the issue, he said.
Mahdi Amin also said that, on the prime minister’s instructions, a decision had already been taken to provide students with free uniforms. Many schools run a mid-day meal program, and there are plans to expand it nationwide in phases, he said, adding that other student-friendly measures were also being taken. In that context, cutting families’ education spending as far as possible was one of the government’s priorities, and it was treating the matter of not imposing additional financial pressure on government primary school students and their parents with seriousness, he said.
Earlier, citing inadequate government funding, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry had decided to charge an exam fee of Tk 30 from third-graders, Tk 40 from fourth-graders and Tk 50 from fifth-graders.
At an event in Dhaka last Saturday, Primary and Mass Education Secretary Md. Sakhawat Hossain had said that, owing to allocation difficulties, it was not currently possible for the government to cover the cost of exams. Exams had to be held and that required money, he said, but the necessary funds were not being provided by the government at present. Once future allocations came through, the problem would not persist and no fee would be collected from students, the secretary said, adding that a verbal instruction on charging the fee had also been issued.
After the secretary’s announcement, the newspapers Dainik Amader Barta and Dainik Shikshadiganta carried several reports presenting the views of parents, who strongly protested the decision.
However, because primary education is compulsory and free, education professionals questioned the decision. They said that although the fee amount was not large, the matter was important as a point of principle, because charging a separate exam fee would not be consistent with the policy of free education.
The country currently has more than 65,000 government primary schools, with about 10 million students. Primary education runs up to grade five. Three exams are generally held each year — termly, half-yearly and annual.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report