More creative questions this year

The ratio of creative questions is being raised by 10 percent to 35 percent in the primary school final examinations from this year.

National Academy for Primary Education Director General Md Nazmul Hasan Khan told bdnews24.com on Tuesday that the structure and marks distribution had been finalised at a national workshop.

The exam time will, however, remain unchanged at two and a half hours.

He said: “Subject to ministry approval, there will be 35 percent merit-based (creative) questions and 65 percent traditional questions for every subject.”

The official said the percentage of merit-based questions in the primary final exams would be increased every year to ultimately make it 100 percent.

Ten percent of the questions were merit-based in 2012, three years after introduction of the primary final exams. Last year, the percentage was raised to 25.

Khan said the decision was taken after discussions with stakeholders, including district and grassroots-level education officers.

He said the authorities would assess whether students were facing difficulties with merit-based questions.

A total of 2,635,406 students sat the last primary final exams.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has been claiming that the creative questions reduce the tendency to cheat and raise the students’ capacity to think their answers by themselves.