How to get corrected primary scholarship exam results
The directorate of primary education has published the corrected results of primary scholarship examination on Wednesday night.
The officials at the directorate also regretted for mistakes in the previous results after publishing the corrected results after 10:30 pm.
Though over 500,000 candidates registered to take part in the exam this year, a total of 482,904 candidates took the exam.
Primary and mass education ministry said the students can get their results from the website of directorate of primary education (www.dpe.gov.bd) and from the ministry’s website (www.mopme.gov.bd).
The candidates also can avail their results from the offices of divisional deputy director, district primary education officer and upazila or thana education officer.
Problem occurred while preparing the results of the primary scholarship examinations like that of the results of the primary education completion (PEC) examinations that had not been held for the past three years
The results can also be known by sending SMS from mobile phones to DPE <> Thana/Upazila Code No. <> Roll Number <> Year to 16222.
What happened over the results in past two days?
Primary and mass education minister Md. Zakir Hossain announced the results of the primary scholarship examination at a press conference at the Secretariat on Tuesday, but the results were postposed on that evening due to ‘technical glitch’.
Later, the ministry said the suspended results would be published on Wednesday afternoon after fixing the technical glitch, but the ministry at a press conference on Tuesday evening said the revised results would be released by Wednesday night without mentioning any specific timeline.
Later, at around 10:30pm, a letter signed by the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) director general Shah Rezwan Hayat said the suspended results were published after a re-evaluation.
How did the error occur?
According to sources, the error occurred because of negligence of the Directorate of Primary Education team that were tasked with preparing the results. For this anger and frustration mounted among thousands of students and guardian due to such ‘irresponsible activity’ of the primary education directorate.
Speaking to Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity, a DPE official said problem occurred while preparing the results of the primary scholarship examinations like that of the results of the primary education completion (PEC) examinations that had not been held for the past three years.
Results of the PEC exams were released based on upazila. This upazila-based data was used to prepare the results of the primary scholarship examinations and in this process error occurred in the code number of the students’ answer scripts.
Two students from two upazilas of Jhenaidah and Sunamganj, for example, had a similar code, but when the data on results were processed centrally, error appeared due to same code number. Since two students had same code number, one of them who was not supposed to get the scholarship might get enlisted for it, and the reverse also happened.
Even students who did not take the test after registration also received the scholarship.
Amount of stipend
A recipient of primary scholarship receives a monthly stipend of Tk 300 and Tk 225 in talent pool and general quota respectively until class VIII. Besides, all other students receive a stipend of Tk 225 annually.
There are 82,500 quotas for this stipend. The primary and mass education ministry at the press conference on Tuesday said a total of 82,383 students received scholarship this year – 33,000 in talent pool and 49,383 in general category.
According to the DPE sources, some students receiving scholarship in the suspended results might be excluded in the corrected results.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, DPE director Uttam Kumar Das said a three-member probe committee has been formed over this incident with an administrative officer and two other officials with technical knowledge.
People concerned alleged the DPE has showed its negligence and ‘stubbornness’ from the beginning of the primary scholarship examination to the releasing of its report.
The exams were held through a sudden announcement at the end of last year ignoring the advices of the academicians. And now anger and frustration mounted among teachers, students and guardians because of suspending the result hours after releasing it.
The primary education completion examinations had not been held over past three years because of the coronavirus pandemic and the introduction of new curriculum. Previously, scholarship was provided based on the results of the primary education completion examinations. However, separate examinations were held for providing scholarship before 2009.
Policymakers at the primary and mass education ministry have been saying no PEC examinations will be held under the new curriculum. But, a decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting at the primary and mass education ministry all on a sudden on 28 November 2022 that said the primary scholarship examination will be held in 2022.
Twenty-nine eminent citizens including professor Serajul Islam Chowdhury, Sultana Kamal, Rasheda K Chowdhury, Syed Manjurul Islam and Manjur Ahmed demanded the withdrawal of the decision.
They said the scholarship examinations may increase discrimination, and dominance of guide books and coaching business. The primary and mass education ministry, however, were rigid to their decision.
As per the decision, 483,759 students, which were 20 per cent of the total students who passed in the annual examination of the class-V, sat for the examinations on 30 December 2022.
The students answered the questions in four subjects -- Bangla, Mathematics, English and Science in the two-hour 100 marks test.