The government has decided to abolish scholarship examinations for Class V students from this year and to evaluate meritorious students through an alternative assessment.

 The decision was made at an inter-ministerial meeting at the primary and mass education ministry at the secretariat on Tuesday.It was not, however, decided at the meeting how the meritorious students would be evaluated and what would be the alternative assessment method. 

State minister for primary and mass education ministry Md Zakir Hossain and education minister Dipu Moni were present at the meeting.

 Later, Dipu Moni at a press conference arranged ahead of HSC exams, explained the reasons for cancelling the scholarship exam saying that a division between meritorious and non-meritorious students  is being created due to the scholarship exam.

Besides, the scholarship exam method is against the philosophy of the new education curriculum, she said.

She also said that only 20 per cent students got scope to participate in the scholarship exams and the teachers give all attention only to them and the rest of the 80 per cent students were deprived.

Most of the students are facing disparity instead of encouragement due to the system, she added.

The education minister, however, said that the meritorious students can be evaluated through alternative ways such as arranging the Olympiad or other creative competitions.

Welcoming the decision, Campaign for Popular Education executive director and former adviser to caretaker government Rasheda K Choudhury told New Age that ‘We had demanded to cancel the scholarship exam of Class V. It is  a discriminatory system where  only 20 per cent students get scope to sit for the exam.’

She said that the government could evaluate the students through the classroom assessment but skilled teacher were needed at the educational institutions for the proper evaluation.

In 2009, the government introduced Primary Education Completion Examinations for the students of Class V and the students were given scholarships based on their merits as per the PEC results.

Before that the students had to sit for the primary scholarship examinations separately to get the scholarships.

In 2020 and 2021, primary scholarships were not given as the PEC exams were not held due to the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

As per the new national curriculum, introduced in 2023, the system of holding the PEC exam has been abolished.

The scholarship exam for the primary students, however, was all of a sudden arranged at the end of the past year. This drew much criticism across the country.

On December 18, past year, thirty eminent citizens, including educationists and rights activists, urged the government to withdraw its ‘sudden’ decision of holding the primary scholarship examinations as these would put mental and physical pressure on the students and create scope for discrimination.

They said that the decision could increase the coaching and guide book businesses, discrimination between the privileged and underprivileged students, expenses of the guardians and unhealthy competitions among the educational institutions.

They said that the selection of 20 per cent of students for the primary scholarship examinations could increase discrimination between the privileged and underprivileged students.