A public interest writ petition was filed in the High Court today seeking directions to ban all admission tests at primary level (classes 2 to 5), to protect young children’s mental development, physical health and natural creativity. It also seeks a ban on all commercial extra books other than the textbooks approved by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, and on all unapproved courses such as play, nursery, KG-1 and KG-2, other than the government-approved pre-primary course.
A lawyer filed the writ petition on Monday (9 November). The cabinet secretary, the secretary of the education ministry’s Secondary and Higher Education Division, the secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the director general of the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and the chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) are named as respondents.
Setting out its legal arguments, the petition says that under the Primary Education (Compulsory) Act 1990 every child has an absolute legal right to enrol in primary education without hindrance. But by framing the “Government Secondary School Student Admission Policy 2027”, it says, the government is making young children face competitive admission tests for primary enrolment, which directly conflicts with the parent law and is wholly beyond its powers. These unlawful tests are causing children severe fear and mental trauma, it says.
In addition, in defiance of the clear prohibition in the National Curriculum and Textbook Board Act 2018, schools are colluding unethically with commercial publishers to load children with a huge burden of supplementary books and guides beyond the NCTB-approved textbooks, the petition says. This inhumane mental pressure and the weight of extra books are harming children’s spines and destroying their physical health and their ability to think at the outset, it says.
The National Education Policy 2010 provides for only one year of government-approved pre-primary education for children, the petition says. Yet, ignoring this, kindergartens and schools across the country have, wholly unlawfully, introduced several levels of unapproved courses such as play, nursery, KG-1 and KG-2 outside the government-approved course, turning children’s education into a commercial trap.
The writ says this attempt to destroy children’s free thinking and natural creativity and bind them in the chains of rote learning is a clear violation of the right to a dignified life under Article 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, the right to the protection of the law under Article 31, and the guarantee of equal, people-oriented education under Articles 17 and 27.
The petition therefore asks the court to issue a rule asking why admission tests at primary level should not be stopped, why including extra books beyond the NCTB textbooks should not be banned, and why running play, nursery, KG and all other unapproved courses other than the government-approved pre-primary course should not be banned. It also seeks an interim stay on these unlawful activities, to protect young children, until the rule is settled.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report