MEDIA reports said the government has decided to introduce area-based admission system at public and private secondary schools asking school management to accept 40 percent students at class six and upward from the locality. It aims at reducing the hassle of movement of students and guardians away from their locality to schools at distant places. The government is also grooming the system to help reducing traffic congestion in the city at peak time by limiting the students’ movement within the locality. It is definitely a good decision but its success will depend on whether it will be able to functions without falling to corrupt practices. When the government is corrupt no system can remain above corruption.
Many however wonder whether the selection of the local students may be fair or fall victim to admission business of local ruling party leaders and school management. They already take donation for admission. They may make outsiders local residents now and locals may be termed as outsiders. The admission business is long dominating the higher academic institutions and the new admission system may now make the lower academic level similarly corrupt in the hands of vested interest quarters. As it appears the initiative has come from the Prime Minister’s Office but the difficulty is that local party men as many fear may take advantage of it to mint illegal money. The admission business at higher academic level is now hundred crore taka business annually.
The idea that students of locality must get admission to local institutions has come from similar practice in many developed countries. But in our system good schools are located at posh areas where children of wealthy and powerful people live. They offer better education and parents from other areas crowd out to get their wards admitted in them
Estimates shows there are more than a thousand secondary schools — both public and private — in the country, in addition to several thousands primary schools mostly run by the government. Many kindergartens are also admitting students at pre-primary level and looking at the new admission system from business prospects, it appears to be quite lucrative for minting fortune.
We would say what is good and not good can only be adjudged by the way the system would function and whether the government would protect it pervasive corruption.
