Govt secondary school admission applications from 15 December

Government secondary schools in Dhaka and the rest of the country will begin accepting applications for admission from 15 December. The applications will be online only (http://gsa.eletalk.com.bd).

An announcement had already been made earlier that due to the prevalence of coronavirus, students of all classes in the coming academic year will be admitted through lottery. The date for the applications and lottery would be announced in due time. The secondary and higher education directorate sent a proposal to the education ministry for the application forms to be distributed from 15 December and for a lottery on 30 December to select students for admission. The ministry has accepted the proposal.

The admission notice states that the application fee this time will be Tk 110, which can only be paid by SMS through Teletalk prepared mobile.

There were 39 government secondary schools and three branches in Dhaka city. After nationalisation, two more schools have been added. The admission procedures for these schools are carried out by the central management under the secondary and higher education directorate.

This time too, admission to the schools will be done in three groups, A, B and C. When applying, a student can list five schools of one group in order of preference. The school will be selected from this by means of lottery. Till now, a student seeking admission could choose one school from a group.

Applicants all over the country will be provided with a thana-wise list of educational institutions. The candidates can then select the 5 schools in order of preference from the available list.

Earlier on 25 November, education minister Dipu Moni had said that due to the coronavirus outbreak, students would be admitted to all classes through lottery in the schools under the education ministry this academic year. And in the Dhaka city schools, half of the students would be admitted from the catchment areas, that is areas around the schools. So long 40 per cent of the students in Dhaka city schools would be admitted from the catchment areas.

Previously students would be admitted through lottery to Class 1 in the country’s schools, while students would have to take written admission test for admission to Class 2 till 8. Admission to Class 9 would be based on the Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) exam results. But the JSC and JDC exams are not being held this year due to coronavirus and so students can’t be admitted to Class 9 based on those results.