Examination and free text books

It was normal in earlier days to hold matriculation examinations (now known as SSC) with a frequency of two subject papers a day. The exam was hardly allowed to stretch beyond five days, starting on Mondays and finishing on Fridays, except the practical examinations. Now-a-days the SSC examinations stretch more than a month under normal circumstances. People around my age, find it difficult to accept the matter. I passed Matriculation in 1948, that is, with the first batch after creation of Pakistan. Therefore the question of cutting the number of exam days by at least half, immediately comes to our mind.  
While millions of tax payers' money is spent to finance free text books in schools, one feels embarrassed as a taxpayer when his/her children collect free books as he or she can easily afford to pay the cost of books. On the other hand, many children of poor parents fail to pay the examination as well as tuition fees. It may be worthwhile to collect the cost of text books from well-to-do parents and the amount so collected can be better utilised to finance examination fees, uniform cost etc. for poor students. We should, therefore, do something about shortening the lengthy time schedule of SSC and similar other examinations. At the same time, the well-to-do parents should buy text books which are otherwise given free by the government and the money can be spent to help the poor parents to pay school fees and buy educational materials for their wards.
Mahmud Ali
New Eskaton,
Dhaka