School students to be automatically promoted if Covid-19 lingers

Primary and secondary school students will be promoted automatically to the next class, without examinations, if the novel coronavirus situation continues for a long time.

However, the examinations, especially Primary Education Completion (PEC), Junior School Certificate (JSC) and its equivalent examinations, will be held, on a limited scale, if the education ministry and primary and mass education ministry can reopen educational institutions before December.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board is now analysing the recommendations made by the Bangladesh Examination Development Unit (Bedu) and the National Academy of Primary Education.

Bedu recommended that the government cancel the JSC and its equivalent examinations if there is no possibility of reopening educational institutions owing to Covid-19.

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Ministry Md Zakir Hossain on Wednesday told the media that they will hold the PEC examinations if educational institutions reopen in September.

"If we can resume classes from October or November, the MCQ and viva voce will be taken by each institution. There will be 50 marks for each exam," he said.

"We have planned to promote students automatically if educational institutions reopen in December. Actually, everything depends on the pandemic situation," he added.

"We will submit our plan to the prime minister on Sunday," he said.

Professor Narayan Chandra Shaha, chairman at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, told The Business Standard that they began a workshop with the participation of teachers and textbook experts on Wednesday.

"We are working to shorten the academic curriculum. However, we need at least two months to prepare a short syllabus. The ministries will decide on whether they will hold examinations or not," he said.

When asked about auto promotion for students, he said, "Our job is to work with curriculum, not to deal with the examinations."  

"Actually, there is no scope to abridge the curriculum. We will do it after receiving opinions from our experts," he added.

The Secretary (Secondary and Higher Education) to the education ministry, Mahbub Hossain, told The Business Standard that the ministry is working on how to find a better solution.

"The National Curriculum and Textbook Board is now working on how to shorten the syllabi. We have not made any decision yet. However, we will definitely find a solution soon based on suggestions from our experts," he said.

Meanwhile, top officials at the education ministry have recently held a meeting with the principal secretary to the prime minister and other top officials at the PMO.

"We discussed Bedu's recommendations and what we need to do. The PMO officials will convey our message to the prime minister. We have sought a directive in this regard," Mahbub Hossain said.

There are about four crore students with nearly 30 lakh teachers and employees in 13,00,000 primary and 30,000 secondary schools across the country.

All educational institutions have remained closed since March 17.

The government started airing recorded classes on Sangsad Television and radio. However, a good number of students do not have access to such distance learning facilities as many households do not have televisions.