Pricey school education

OVER the years, syndicates have emerged centering on school admissions. They open coaching centres near the reputed schools and advertise that taking admission in them, prior to admission in schools, will lead to admission-seeking children not only doing well in the admission tests but, more significantly, the ones admitted to these centres would be aided to assuredly get admission in schools as well. These so-called coaching centres are taking hundreds of thousands of taka from the guardians under the table in exchange of promises to secure school admissions. Besides, the school authorities have directly been increasing their various charges most unreasonably. While a one-time admission charge should be enough, schools have been taking readmission charge as the students pass out and enter the next higher grade. Also, the readmission charges have also been turning bigger and bigger every year. Despite some recent efforts by the government to counter the menace of such malpractices, the problems are still not over. However, it must also be admitted that the recent government efforts have yielded some good results in the cases with some educational institutions. But such efforts do need to be more vigorously and extensively carried out. The right to education must not become grossly distorted and turned into a money game. The pursuit of education, a fundamental human right, should, under no circumstances, be a matter of wheeling-dealing like many other areas of life in Bangladesh today. The education opportunities of children of the non-affluent families have to be expanded in every possible way. Thus, this issue needs close attention from the government. Ishrat Mahmud Kalabagan, Dhaka