Lower secondary classes in government primary schools scrapped

Grades 6-8 will not be available at 729 government primary schools from next year

The interim government has decided to suspend the lower secondary level classes introduced in government primary schools in line with the latest National Education Policy.

The grades 6-8 introduced on an experimental basis at 729 government primary schools will be cancelled from next year.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has instructed that students not be enrolled in these grades at these schools from the 2026 academic year.

Masud Akter Khan, additional secretary of the school division of the ministry, told bdnews24.com on Thursday morning: “We want to focus on primary education, so government primary schools will only have up to class five.

"An administrative decision has been taken to suspend those three grades and not to admit new students at the primary schools where grades 6-8 were operating. The chief advisor has approved the decision.”

On Mar 12, the ministry had issued an order to stop new admissions at the lower secondary level of those 729 schools, asking the Directorate of Primary Education to take measures in this regard.

At present, primary education in Bangladesh is up to the fifth grade. In the last National Education Policy formed in 2010, the level of primary education was to be upgraded to class eight and the level of secondary education up to class 12.

The authorities began to approve grades 6-8 in government primary schools on an experimental basis from 2013.

In 2016, it was also announced that primary education would be extended up to class 8. However, the initiative was not implemented afterwards.

In May 2024, the then-Awami League-led government decided to extend free primary schooling up to the eighth grade.

Additional Secretary Masud believes the decision to introduce classes 6 to 8 in primary schools was "not taken very thoughtfully”.

“The primary schools lack sufficient infrastructure and labour. As a result, the teaching of sixth to eighth grades in the primary schools was not of particularly good quality.”

From now on, the ministry will “focus” on primary education up to the fifth grade, he added.