THE New Nation reported on how around 300 colleges under the Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board are in dire existential crisis as only a small number of students have applied for admission in Higher Secondary courses this year in these colleges. The crisis developed as the Education Ministry has launched online admission process for the first time in higher secondary courses in which students can opt in five colleges for admission. Using the facility most students have applied to only best colleges but it has puts the Dhaka Education Board in an embarrassing situation as the best colleges are overcrowded now while those at the lower standard are not getting students for admission. Even students with poor results want admission in good colleges and there is no doubt the involvement of the Board in selecting the college of admission for students has created the scope for political interference to give admission to students with poor results in good colleges.
There is a growing fear that such admission system may become fraught with irregularities from deprivation of good students not recommended by the ruling party men. It is evident that good colleges have limited seats and they are turning down applicants creating an uneasy situation. The Chairman of Dhaka Education Board and the Inspector of Colleges both agreed that poor standard colleges have failed to prove their worth and they will have to work hard to achieve acceptability to parents and their students. As per the report, over 372,834 students have applied for admission in Higher Secondary courses this year against 460,000 seats in 1,205 colleges under the Dhaka Education Board. It means 87,166 seats in the sub-standard colleges remain empty while many students will not get admission in good colleges.
The new admission system is adding more confusion at all level. Questions have arisen as to why the Education Ministry has taken the extra load of regulating admission of students to higher secondary courses in colleges and forcing the Boards to distribute seats to applicants as per guidelines. The Board is already overloaded with holding public examinations and almost routinely running out of time in holding the exams and giving their results. There is a growing fear that the new responsibility to coordinate admission will only create more congestion at every level. It has also exposed the failure of many colleges set up by wealthy men and influential persons as additive to social status or for profiteering but they have failed to develop them to lure students. So these colleges must improve or cease to exist.
But the most serious issue is whether the Education Ministry should regulate admission and the Board to coordinate it as against leaving it to colleges to run it the way they are used to do it. What is most important here is that the government must ensure colleges should not indulge in admission business for money and force students to pay excess admission fees beyond a stipulated rate for them depending on their quality.
