Eminent citizens and educationists on Monday demanded that the government repeal the decision of reintroducing public scholarship exam at primary level, terming it discriminatory and anti-constitutional.
In a joint statement, they demanded the withdrawal of the fresh decision of the test, which is slated for this December.
Earlier, primary and mass education ministry made the decision of holding the exam.
The new curriculum is being launched in class one, six and seven from the next academic year 2023.
The curriculum gives less importance to the public examination at initial stages and more importance to ongoing evaluation at the educational institutions.
It is also planned to implement it in other stages gradually, the citizens cited. "In this situation, we're concerned about the rationale of the decision of reintroducing 'Primary Scholarship Examination', an old system, at the very end of the year," reads the statement.
"We believe if the decision to conduct the scholarship exam is suddenly taken and implemented, in the positive trend of change in the education system of the country as per the outline of the new curriculum, it will put a lot of mental and physical pressure on students."
The new curriculum encourages full development and exploration of latent talents of all students.
However, restarting a scholarship programme by picking only 20 per cent of the students may increase "disparity between the privileged and the disadvantaged. It's against the principles of our constitution."
So much experimentation in education often confuses students and parents, which is not desirable at all, they observed.
They feared that the decision of rearranging the exam would push the children to be discriminated against in the process of schooling.
It would further open an increasing business of coaching and guide books, stated the noted citizens.
They highlighted that the government has brought some effective and positive changes in the education curricula. However, the new decision would contradict the motive of the changes, the observed.
Even parents will face additional costs and educational institutions will engage in an unhealthy competition.
In 2009, scholarship exam was dropped and 'Primary Education Completion (PEC)' exam was introduced.
Considering the coronavirus situation and the new curriculum outline, the PEC exam has not been conducted for the past three years.
The signatories are Prof Serajul Islam Chowdhury, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Ramendu Mazumder, Sultana Kamal, Nasir Uddin Yusuf, Prof Syed Manjurul Islam, Prof MM Akash, Rasheda K Chowdhury, Prof Manjur Ahmed, Ilyas Kanchan, Prof Mahfuza Khanam, Prof Robayet Ferdous, Kazi Faruque Ahmed, Asif Saleh, Ferdousi Mazumder, Mamunur Rashid, Nazrul Islam Khan, Kazi Rafiqul Alam, Ejazul Islam, Mansoor Ahmed Chowdhury, Shaheen Anam, Mostak Raja Chowdhury, M Sakhawat Hossain, Sanjeeb Drong, Korvi Rakshand, Maleka Begum, Khaled Masood Pilot, Prof Shafi Ahmed and Prof M Tariq Ahsan.
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