Primary school scholarship exam begins after 13 years

Fifth graders in schools across Bangladesh are taking the primary school scholarship exam after a gap of 13 years.

The exam began at 10:00am today (Friday) and will continue until 12:00pm.

Students will be tested on Bangla, English, Mathematics and Science on a scale of 100 marks, with 25 marks allotted for each subject. The exam will be two hours long, reports UNB.

At least 33,000 students will receive a talent-pool stipend and 49,500 students will receive a general stipend if they succeed in the 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.

Students who qualify for the talent-pool stipend will get Tk 300 a month while general stipend holders will receive Tk 225 per month until they complete grade 8.

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.