No exam fee to be charged in govt primary schools, new decision soon

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education is set to withdraw its decision to charge examination fees from students in class-III to class-V at government primary schools.

As a result, students in government primary schools will not be required to pay any examination fees.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education had previously decided to introduce examination fees for students in government primary schools due to complications related to budget allocations.

On Tuesday, Prothom Alo published a report titled “Fees to be charged for exams in free primary education” on the matter.

Commenting on the issue, Mahdi Amin, adviser on Education and Primary and Mass Education to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, told Prothom Alo on Tuesday that the government maintains a policy position against charging examination fees to students in government primary schools.

He added that Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque would be informed of the matter promptly.

Mahdi Amin further stated that, in accordance with the prime minister’s directives, the government has already decided to provide free school uniforms to students.

Mid-day meal programmes are currently operating in many schools, and there are plans to expand the programmes nationwide in phases. In addition, the government is undertaking various other student-friendly initiatives.

Under these circumstances, reducing educational expenses for families as much as possible remains one of the government's key priorities.

As part of this commitment, the government is placing significant importance on ensuring that students in government primary schools and their parents are not subjected to additional financial burdens.

Earlier, owing to insufficient government funding, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education had decided to collect examination fees of Tk 30 from class-III students, Tk 40 from class-IV students, and Tk 50 from class-V students.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on Monday, Primary and Mass Education Secretary Md Sakhawat Hossain explained that the government was currently unable to meet examination expenses because of budgetary constraints.

He said, “The examinations must be conducted, and that requires funding. However, at present, the government is unable to provide the necessary financial allocation. Once adequate funding becomes available in the future, this problem will no longer exist, and students will not be required to pay any examination fees.”

He also confirmed that verbal instructions regarding the collection of fees had already been issued.

However, education stakeholders questioned the decision, noting that primary education is both compulsory and free of cost.

They argued that although the proposed fees were relatively small in monetary terms, the issue was important from a policy perspective.

Charging separate examination fees, they said, would not be consistent with the principle of free primary education.

Bangladesh currently has more than 65,000 government primary schools, serving nearly 10 million (1 crore) students.

Primary education extends up to class-V. Schools generally conduct three examinations each year – the term examination, the half-yearly examination, and the annual examination.