School admission
40pc area quota for pvt instts, too
Online application process not
compulsory
Non-government educational institutions in Dhaka city will have to reserve 40 per cent quota for local students admission in class-I from next year, according to the education ministry.
However, the government did not made online application system for admission compulsory for the non-government educational institutions. A few schools in Dhaka city last year conducted their admission through online application process.
The education ministry at a meeting on admission policy at the secretariat yesterday reached a consensus in this regard but all matters will be finalised after a meeting with the education minister, said sources.
The meeting also unanimously decided to fix the age of admission seekers to class-I at 6-plus and the application fee for admission at Tk 200. In the last admission policy, the age was fixed between five to seven years.
This is the first time the government has taken the decision to enroll students through area-based admission at public and private schools in metropolitan areas.
Earlier, on Tuesday, the government decided to introduce a 40 per cent quota in each government education institution for the people living in that institution zone.
The government also decided to extend the online admission system for class I to district-level educational institutions across the country from next year.
Currently, the system is practiced at only 24 government educational institutions in the Dhaka metropolitan area, but the ministry said they would introduce it across the country as they have the infrastructure to do so.
However, sources said while online admission was good to bring in transparency, it would be difficult to introduce this across the country as infrastructure up to district level was not satisfactory.
The fees for online admissions would be paid through state-run mobile company Teletalk. Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (DSHE) sources said there were 32 government educational institutions in the capital and the number would be 35 from next year, however only 14 schools had class-I with a seat capacity of about 1,500.
Meanwhile, the ministry is yet to confirm the process through which the guardians and parents would prove that they were living in a zone fixed particularly for a given educational institution.
The ministry of education took the initiative to incorporate area-based admission based on directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who observed that guardians and students suffer a lot on streets for long hours as they have to attend educational institutions travelling long distances from their residences.
