Govt suspends primary school scholarship results over ‘technical glitch’

The suspension comes fours after the announcement of the results

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 Feb 2023, 02:02 PM
Updated : 28 Feb 2023, 02:02 PM

Four hours after announcing the names of the successful candidates, the government has suspended the results of primary school scholarship exams, citing technical errors.

As many as 82,383 secured the scholarships, including 33,000 in the talent pool, according to the summary of the results published on Tuesday afternoon.



However, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossen in the evening said that the full results could not be published and some technical errors were found.

“So, the results have been suspended. The full results will be published on Wednesday afternoon.”

The quotas for the Upazila and Thana talent-pool scholarships were set according to the number of students who took part in the examinations. General scholarships are distributed at the union and municipality levels.

The amount of the stipend has also 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, which 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 throughout Bangladesh were 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 Completion exams in 2009 spelt the end of the separate scholarship exams. Students subsequently received a government stipend on the basis of their performance in the PEC exams.

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

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