ACCORDING to an English daily report, it is the time when parents and guardians are locked in a battle to enroll their children in their preferred schools around the country. The school admission battle is more intense in capital city Dhaka with only 32 government schools and some quality non-government schools.
It seems like all government schools want to jump in on the academic innovation and digitalization bandwagon as they are set to introduce online admission process for enrolling students in 2015 academic year, while most of the reputed non-government schools are also following the suit. The report also added that the capital city’s government secondary schools will be divided into three categories on the basis of their location and quality of education and students in different classes will be admitted based on different techniques (some will be selected through lottery, some will need to take written tests and students will be admitted to Class IX based on the results of Junior School Certificate and Junior Dakhil Certificate examinations). Experts doubt variation on admission criteria may bad to selection through corrupt methods. The news report also clarified that the government decided to increase admission fees and price of admission forms at public schools this year.
Prominent non-government institutions like Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Ideal School and College and Dhaka Residential Model College have also already started admission process. According to the estimate of the Education Directorate, more than 1,00,000 new students are enrolled at the city’s secondary schools every year.
It may be a good practice that the schools are to introduce online admission processing which would hopefully limit the hassle guardians have to go through to admit their children. An educated populace is considered a nation’s backbone and it is the duty of the government and all those relevant in the national academic circle to make utmost efforts to bring education to the young masses and provide proper resources to ensure better learning and results.
Education should be more about learning and quality to which all children must get access to. Steps should be taken to ensure that the process is fair as it could still be possible to influence the process unfairly. The number of quality schools should also be increased to ensure that more children get a chance to study at a quality environment.
