DHAKA — Complaints that the Government Primary School Scholarship Examination is discriminatory are unfounded, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education said Saturday, because free education at government primary schools is open to every child of school-going age in Bangladesh.
The clarification came in a statement signed by Abdullah Shibli Sadiq, the ministry’s senior information officer. The ministry said remarks made at a recent news conference by the Bangladesh Kindergarten Oikya Parishad had drawn its attention, and it issued the statement to clarify its position on the scholarship exam.
The ministry said various programs are being implemented to improve education quality at government primary schools, and the Government Primary School Scholarship Examination, held only for fifth-grade students, is one of them. Education surveys in Bangladesh show most students at government primary schools come from lower-income families, while most kindergarten students come from relatively well-off families. The scholarship exam, the ministry said, serves as a financial incentive to help children from lower-income families continue their education.
The ministry said kindergartens, through their own association, run a Kindergarten Association Scholarship Examination for grades two through five, restricted to kindergarten students. Government primary school students cannot take that exam, and parents of those students have demanded a scholarship exam for government schools.
The statement said Article 17(a) of the Bangladesh Constitution and the Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1990 require the government to ensure free primary education for all eligible children. No public-private partnership policy applies here. Parents who choose to send their children to private institutions do so voluntarily. Given that, the ministry said, complaints that the Government Primary School Scholarship Examination is discriminatory are unfounded, because free primary education at government schools is open to all eligible children.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report