Education ministry scuttles proposal to introduce Class VI in primary schools

The education ministry has said it cannot give the go-ahead to a proposal put forward by the primary and mass education ministry to introduce Class VI in all the primary schools as it has not been cleared by the Cabinet.

The education ministry conveyed the decision to the primary and mass education secretary on Monday that government primary schools could not add another class right now.

The proposal was made in line with National Education Policy 2010, according to a source in the mass education ministry.

As per the new education policy, the government would like to make primary education up to Class VIII and secondary education from Class IX to Class XII.

Currently, over 600 primary schools are offering Class VI studies in the country while around 100 schools offer up to class VII.

The primary and mass education ministry will upgrade the primary schools in phases so that they can offer up to Class VIII as part of the implementation of the education policy.

The mass education ministry made the proposal citing a meeting held on May 16 in which Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman discussed the education policy and its implementation.  

It is now unclear what will happen to those 700 schools that are offering Class VI and Class VII.

The primary and mass education minister on June 21 had announced that since the primary education would be upgraded up to class VIII, there would be no primary education completion or PEC examination for Class V.

However, six days later, the Cabinet decided that both Class V and Class VIII final examinations would continue until further notice.

And then there was a mess when the mass education ministry announced on Oct 20, 2016, that it would not conduct JSC and JDC exams for Class VIII. The education ministry stepped in and administered the exams.

Then the tug of war between the two ministries began over the issue of who would send the proposal to the Cabinet to raise primary education up to Class VIII as per the new education policy.