Bangladesh releases results of primary school scholarship exams

33,000 students will receive a talent-pool stipend and 49,383 will receive a general stipend

Bangladesh has released the results of the primary school scholarship exam, which was taken across the country in December after a gap of 13 years.

A total of 33,000 students will receive a talent-pool stipend, up from 22,000 previously. A general stipend will go to 49,383 students, up from 33,000 previously. This means, the government will give a stipend to a total of 82,383 students until the eighth grade if they meet the requirements.

State Minister of Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossen announced highlights from the results on Tuesday.

The results are available on the websites of the Directorate of Primary Education (dpe.gov.bd/) and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (mopme.gov.bd/), and through the offices of the divisional deputy directors, the offices of the district’s primary education officer, and the offices of the upazila and thana education officers.

The quotas for the upazila and thana talent-pool scholarships were set according to the number of students that took part in the examination, the state minister said.

“General scholarships are distributed at the union and municipality level,” he said.

The amount of the stipend has also been increased since 2015.

“Previously, the talent-pool stipend was Tk 200 per month, but this was set at Tk 300 from 2015. The general stipend was Tk 150 a month, but was raised to Tk 225.”

Students were tested on Bangla, English, Mathematics and Science on a scale of 100 marks, with 25 marks allotted for each subject during the two-hour scholarship exam.

At least 20 percent of fifth graders in every primary school across the country have been chosen to take part in the scholarship exam based on their performance in the annual assessments.

Previously, fifth graders were able to undertake the exams at the end of grade 5 in a bid to secure a scholarship for their secondary education.

But the introduction of the Primary Education Certificate exams in 2009 spelt the end of the separate scholarship exam. Students subsequently received a government stipend on the basis of their performance in the PEC exams.

The last PEC exam was held in 2019. Based on the results of the exam, more than 80,000 students were awarded a stipend in February 2020.

However, the PEC exam has not been held for the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Later, the government announced that the test would be scrapped as a new curriculum was on the way.