Government primary and secondary schools have largely failed to compete with with non-government and private institutions, according to results of the Junior School Certificate and Primary Education Completion exams which were published on Sunday and Monday.
Only one government school of the capital could earn a position in the top 20 institutions of the country in primary examination results. The list has 14 non-government schools of the capital Dhaka.
In the Junior School Certificate exams, only two government schools could be in the top 20 institutions of the Dhaka education board. The list also has 14 non-government schools of the capital.
In primary exams results, no government school could earn a place among the top 10 schools of the Dhaka division. In junior school certificate exams, only one government school could be in the list of top 10 schools of the capital.
According to the Dhaka district education office, 81,200 students of more than 550 non-government and 24 government schools of the capital took the JSC exams.
The Dhaka district primary education office said that 1,66,000 students had taken the primary exams from more than 750 schools and 274 were government institutions.
This time, 98.58 per cent of the students of Class V passed the primary completion exams and 89.71 student of Class VIII passed the JSC exams.
The number of GPA 5 scorers in the primary exams is 2,40,961 and in the JSC exams 1,52,987.
Education authorities, however, said that the overall performance of government schools was satisfactory.
Continued slide in education standards in government schools have
forced guardians to send their children to non-government schools, kindergartens and English-medium schools. Only the people who cannot manage expenses for kindergartens or English-medium send their children to government schools, guardians said.
Former caretaker government adviser in charge of primary eduation Rasheda K Choudhury said, ‘Non-government schools have more investments, library and lab facilities, physical infrastructure and teachers there get paid more than teachers in government schools do.’ She said that solvent families do not get their children enrolled on primary schools.
The Bangladesh Government Secondary Assistant Teachers’ Association president, Mofazzal Hossain, said that positions of many assistant teachers and head teachers were vacant in government schools, hampering academic activities.
An education ministry official said that policy-makers had paid more attention to the expansion of education rather than its quality.
The Dhaka district primary education officer, Shirin Akhter, said that students who do not get chance in renowned schools enrolled on government primary schools. ‘Most of the guardians are lower middle-class people who can hardly supervise the education of their children,’ she said. Guardians of non government schools can afford private tuition and coaching classes and this gets reflected in the results, she added.
The Dhaka district education officer, Abdus Samad, said that government schools were trying their best to improve their position.
Dhaka zone DSHE deputy director AKM Mostofa Kamal said that government schools in the capital do not get ‘meritorious’ students ‘as guardians send their students to government schools only when they fail to have their children enrolled on renowned schools.’
Courtesy of New Age
