DHAKA — A kindergarten alliance threatened nationwide protests if private and kindergarten students are barred from the fifth-grade scholarship examination, leaders said.
The Bangladesh Kindergarten Unity Council called the government decision to limit the primary-level fifth-grade scholarship exam to government primary school students “a conspiracy and discriminatory.”
The group demanded the immediate cancellation of the directive and called for the scholarship exam to be opened to students from all institutions, as before. It warned of a larger nationwide movement if the demand is not met.
Iskandar Ali Howlader, chairman of the Private and Kindergarten Unity Council, made the demand at a news conference Thursday afternoon at the National Press Club.
Rezaul Haque, secretary general of the group, said in a written statement that more than 50,000 kindergartens in the country are teaching more than 10 million students. Holding the scholarship exam for only government primary school students, while excluding such a large share of the country’s pupils, is not reasonable, he said. The decision amounts to deceiving and disappointing the other students, he said.
Also present at the news conference were Lion Tajul Islam Nazrul, Abul Kalam Azad, Sharful Islam, Dr. Md. Hasan Ali, Tofayel Ahammad Tanjir, Md. Hasanuzzaman Khasru, Md. Israfil Hossain, Abdul Matin and Khalilur Rahman.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report