Abolish PEC exam immediately: DU's IER

The Institute of Education and Research (IER) of Dhaka University recommended abolishing the Primary Education Completion (PEC) examination immediately to protect the children from mental pressure and ensure their proper growth.

IER came up this proposal while analysing the draft of the Primary Education Board Law 2021.

A press release issued a few days ago signed by the director of IER professor Md Abdul Halim reads, the institute is going to send a report to the primary and mass education ministry in this regard.

The IER recommendation says PEC is a certificate based test. Such type of examination creates huge mental pressure on children, which is why it should be scrapped immediately.

As per fresh curriculum, which will be implemented from 2023, students will have to study 10 common subjects from Class VI to X. Then they will take the first public examination, Secondary School Certificate (SSC).

There will be no public exams usually held in the fifth and eighth grades.

The fresh curriculum says students will be allowed to choose what discipline—science, business or humanities— they would pursue for higher studies after passing the SSC examination.

In the current curriculum, SSC examination is held based on the syllabus of ninth and tenth grades together. But in the proposed one the examination will be held only under the syllabus of Class X.