The High Court has issued a order about the closure of primary and secondary schools throughout the upcoming month of Ramadan. At the same time, the notification to keep schools open during Ramadan has also been suspended. The High Court bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order following a writ petition. The High Court has issued a rule asking why the decision to keep the school open should not be canceled. The notification to keep the school open has also been suspended for two months. Earlier, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Elias Ali Mondal filed the writ petition with the concerned branch of the High Court on February 25. He challenged the legality of the government's decision to keep schools open during the month of holy Ramadan.

The government has decided to keep the government and private secondary schools open for 15 days during the month of Ramadan. The academic activities of secondary schools will continue from March 11 to 25, said a notification of the Ministry of Education signed by Public Relations Officer Mohammad Abul Khayer. As per the notification, the government has brought some changes the holiday list of the educational institutions in 2024.

The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations under eight education boards are starting today, Thursday.  Due to natural disasters, the examinations of remaining three education boards have been postponed including Chattogram, Technical and Madrasah Education Division. The first exam on Bengali first paper will be held at 10:00am. A total of 13,59, 342 students — 6,88, 887 boys and 6,70,455 girls — are expected to sit for this year’s HSC exams, 1,55,935 more than the previous year.

The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination-2023 routine has been published. Under the supervision of nine general education boards the examination will commence on August 17 and will end on September 25.  Practical examination will hold between September 26 to October 4. On Thursday, June 08, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka has announced the examinations schedule. According to the notice issued by the Inter Education Board Examination Controller and Dhaka Education Board Examination Controller, Professor Md Abul Bashar, "The examinees have been asked to pass into the exam hall at least 30 minutes before the start of the examination.  Candidates will be allowed to use a scientific calculator. However, the use of programming calculator will be prohibited.  No candidate will be allowed to bring a mobile phone to examination center."

The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations results will be published on February 8.  Convener of Inter Education Board Coordinating Committee and Chairman of Dhaka Education Board Tapan Kumar Sarkar confirmed this matter on Sunday morning. Earlier, the education boards had sent a proposal to the government to publish the results on February 7, 8 or 9 — any day. Then Dhaka Education Board Chairman Tapan Kumar Sarkar said that there is a rules to publish the results within 60 days of end of the examination. As such, there is time till February 11. Considering the time, proposals have been sent to publish the results on February 7, 8 or 9 — any day. The result will be published on the day Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gives her consent. Noted that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates the programme of SSC and HSC exam results.

Education Minister Dipu Moni today (Saturday) said all secondary and higher secondary schools will resume in-person classes on all subjects from March 15. “All secondary and higher secondary schools are asked to resume in-person classes on all subjects from March 15,” said the minister while speaking at a programme organised to inaugurate ‘Lila Nag Bhaban’ of Sher-e-Bangla Girls' College at Tikatuli in the capital. With the introduction of new curriculum, number of examinations will be reduced and fear of students about examinations will go away, she said.   “The new curriculum will help us come out of the test-based assessments.  There will be a daily evaluation on the teaching every day and there will be limited examinations at the end of the year but the final assessments will be made by adjusting the evaluation throughout the year,” said Dipu Moni. All educational institutions were closed for about two years due to the Covid-19 the broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020. On September 12, 2021, in-person classroom teaching in educational institutions began in a limited manner with maintaining hygiene guidelines. But in two phases, the teaching of classes in the educational institutions was stopped till February 21 as the rates of Covid-19 infections and death increased alarmingly. As the situation improved at the beginning of this year, classroom teaching began from February 22 in a limited manner at secondary and higher secondary level.   Classroom teaching at the primary level began from March 2 on a limited scale. Source: BSS AH

Jatiya Sangsad today (Sunday) passed the Intermediate and Secondary Education Amendment Bill-2021 aiming to remove any legal barriers on the way to publish the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations by January 28. Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni moved the bill in the House which was unanimously passed by voice votes with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. While placing the bill, the minister said the bill has been placed to promulgate ordinance amending the ‘Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance 1961’. “Although the ordinance has mandatory provision of holding public examinations, not only Bangladesh, but the developed countries also have taken alternative steps instead of holding public examinations under the consequence of the COVID-19 situation,” the minister told parliament. Most of the opposition lawmakers including Harunur Rashid, Rumin Farhana, Rawshan Ara Mannan, Mokabbir Khan and Mujibul Haq opposed the enactment of the law. On the other hand, another opposition member Fazley Imam gave full support to enactment of the law and said “the enactment of the law is an expression of wisdom of the government considering the situation of the pandemic.” Earlier on January 11, the cabinet approved amending the Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance 1961, Bangladesh Vocational Education Board Act 2018 and Madrasa Education Board Act 2020 allowing the education boards to publish results without holding examinations during any crisis. Besides, two more bills—‘Bangladesh Vocational Education Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ and ‘Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021’– were also passed in the house. ‘Bangladesh Vocational Education Board Act 2018’ and ‘Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board Act 2020’ also will be amended to frame other two proposed acts. While placing the bill, the education minister said as per the existing laws, there is no provision to publish the results of HSC and equivalent exams without holding tests. Since it is not possible to hold examinations during the Covid-19 pandemic, the amendment bills were placed, she added. The results will be published after coordinating 75 percent of the SSC and 25 percent of JSC-JDC results, said the minister. The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations were postponed this year due to Covid-19 situation. Source: BSS AH

The education ministry has directed to give ID number instead of roll number for the secondary level students of the country. In this regard the direction of Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni has been sent to all regional directors, deputy directors, district education officers, principals of private and government schools and colleges and upazila education officers through the secondary and higher education directorate. The direction signed by Director General of the directorate said, in the last education year final examinations at the secondary level were not held to protect the students from coronavirus pandemic. But according to the direction of secondary and higher education directorate evaluation activities-based on assignments were performed successfully. There are mixed reactions among the guardians whether awarding roll number would be appropriate or not based on these evaluations. Besides, the system of roll number creates competition among the students which at last stands as a bar to get quality education. To get quality education it needs to create cooperative mentality among the students in place of competition. In this regard ID number will create a favorable condition. It was also mentioned that ID number might be provided among the students through randomization method or according to alphabetical order of the names of the students. AH     

The time to apply for admission in class one to nine in the government secondary level schools has been extended till January 7. The information was delivered by secondary and higher education directorate on Thursday. It is known that those who could not apply due to age complexities now can apply till January 7. The directorate of secondary and higher education has extended the time period following writ filed with the High Court. Besides, the suspended lottery for the admission will be held on January 11. According to the government rules the minimum age for admission in class one is more than six years and for class six it is 11 years. But due to the writ petition and following the directives the digital lottery activities were suspended and time for apply and lottery has been fixed a fresh. The application through online can be made from today. The software for submitting application will be active till 5pm of January 7. Earlier, the deadline for submitting application of secondary level students was December 27 and the selection process through online lottery was scheduled to hold on December 30. AH     

The net enrollment rate for secondary education in Bangladesh is still significantly low, but better compared to the past, according to the UNFPA annual report. The ‘State of World Population Report 2019’ puts the enrollment rate at 57 percent for male children and 67 percent for female in 2017. But in 1999, the rate was 43 percent for girls. “It’s a huge achievement for the government,” Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel told UNB. He noted that the secondary school enrollment rate for girls proves that female education in Bangladesh has reached a new height. He said the government is conducting studies to find out reasons behind high dropout rate among male students and added that "scientific approaches" will be taken to solve the issues. Meanwhile, the net enrollment rate for primary education has increased significantly for girls. It stood at 98 percent in 2017 compared to 45 percent in 1990. For male children, the rate stood at 92 percent in 2017. Debadas Halder, assistant professor of Institute of Education and Research, Dhaka University, highlighted the lack of initiatives as a reason behind fewer enrollments in secondary education. “Secondary education receives much less attention compared to primary level,” he said, noting that increasing the cost of higher education also discourages parents from enrolling children for secondary education in many cases. Bangladesh also has one of the highest rates of child marriage – one of the key reasons for school dropouts. Deputy Minister Nowfel said the government is considering structural change and improving incentives support to see the gap between primary and secondary enrollment rate removed. “Structural policy has produced better results in some cases and now we want to continue with a targeted policy involving all stakeholders,” he said. Source: UNB AH