Education minister to brief media on admission glitch

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is finally going to break his ‘silence’ over the prevailing ‘anarchy’ in the admission process for enrolling students in XI grade.  

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 July 2015, 01:25 PM
Updated : 4 July 2015, 03:51 PM

He is slated to brief the media over the glitch on Sunday morning at the Secretariat, a statement said.

Nahid held a meeting with the Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan and other top officials of the ministry and the education board at his official residence in Dhaka on Saturday.

An official present at the meeting said they discussed the admission process for the XI grade and decided to hold the briefing to ‘assure’ the students and their guardians.

On the condition of anonymity, the official told bdnews24.com that the education secretary held several officials of the ministry and the board as well as some journalists responsible for the complication over the admission process.

“Several officials of the ministry and the board should be removed as they were not following my instructions,” the secretary was quoted as saying at the meeting.

“The glitch over the admission was caused mainly due to them,” the secretary said.

The official said the minister told the secretary that removing them was not the only solution.

The minister stressed on the need for an official briefing, he said.

This year, every student vying to get admitted into a college had to apply online or through SMS.

Education Secretary Khan allegedly defied Minister Nahid and forced all colleges to use the automated students’ selection system, leading to a severe crisis.

The online admission system crashed as its design was unable to cope with the large number of applicants.

Results of college admission were published on June 28, after three-day delay, due to the technical failure.

The students faced further difficulties due to numerous errors in the results.

Many colleges faced difficulties in admitting students as they did not get the admission list.

The education minister was tight-lipped over the admission process.