Staff Reporter :
The government is still undecided for holding the Primary Examination Completion (PEC) and equivalent examinations this year, leaving the students and their guardians in anxiety.
On the one hard, the government is saying they have not yet taken any decision whether the PEC exams will be held or not.
They, on the other hard, are telling that the junior students need not to be worried, and if the exams are held it will be informed before three months of the schedule in November.
Amid this ambiguity, the students and the guardians said the government should immediately come to a conclusion whether PEC exams will be scrapped or
continue because such ambiguity of statement put additional them in anxiety.
Over the last two years the junior students could not attend the schools due to the pandemic and when the schools are reopened on March 1, their preparation for sitting any examinations is far off.
So the government is still undecided whether the primary examinations will be held or it will be only a class assessment.
“We still could not take any decision for holding PEC examinations,” State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain told the journalists at a press conference in the Secretariat on Thursday.
“The students could not study for the last two years due to pandemic. We want that the learners will complete this deficit of learning. Then we want to think of holding exams. Let the students learn first.”
Over the last several years different quarters including the educationists came up of the view that the PEC exams should be cancelled because such exams only put pressures on the students and the guardians.
Taking this issue under consideration, the government also took initiatives to scrap the PEC and equivalent examinations but the matter is still hanging in the balance.
The government introduced the PEC examinations in 2009 and its equivalent Ebtedayee exams began in the following year.
In reply to a query, the Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) Alamgir Muhammad Mansurul Alam said, “Our system of education is not focused to examinations. The students should study to achieve the learning ability. We have tried to provide the teaching through various means in the last two years during pandemic.”
“As the students could not attend the class in-person, there is deficit of learning. We don’t want to keep the students under the exam pressures and anxiety. Let them achieve the learning ability first,” he continued.
He further said, “According to the new curriculum, in future there will be no exams up to class three. We will go for assessment in phases. The students need not to be worried about exams.”
Secretary of the Primary and Mass Education Ministry Aminul Islam said, “We don’t want to make any comment beforehand whether exams will be held or not. The students will learn first. If the decision for holding exams is taken, they will sit for it.”
He said the guardians should shun the thought of exams rather they should pay attention to the learning of their children.
“With the consultation of the stakeholders, we can tell three months before whether the exams will be held or not,” he added.
