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Applications for new students in class I to IX at all government schools in the country and private schools in the metropolitan and district Upazila Sadar areas can be submitted from Friday.
As in the past few years, students will get school admission opportunities through a digital lottery this time too.
Prof Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, a member of the Dhaka Metropolitan Admission Committee and director of the Secondary Admissions Branch of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, said, "Online applications will open from 11:00 am on Friday. We have made all necessary preparations. Students can apply online from their homes and pay the fee using Teletalk prepaid mobiles. The admission application fee has been set at Tk 100."
Applications can be submitted through the website https://gsa.teletalk.com.bd until 5:00 pm on December 5. The online application fee was previously Tk 100, but this year it has been reduced to Tk 10, bdnews24.com reports.
December 14 is the potential date for the lottery, with admissions being resolved between December 17-21.
There will be two waiting lists this year as well. The admission committee says that students will be admitted from the first waiting list from December 22-24 and from the second waiting list from December 27-30.
Yunus Faruki, member secretary of the admission committee and deputy director of the department, said that the headmasters of government and private schools have provided information about vacant seats for the admission of new students.
“We will know the total number of vacant seats that are available by Thursday afternoon,” he said.
Students will have to apply separately for school applications. They can select five schools of their preference in the online application. For schools that have two shifts, selections of both shifts will count as two of the preferred schools.
In this year’s admission policy of government and private schools, the Ministry of Education has said that there will be 55 students in each class section of these schools. The admission policy has also instructed schools to follow the “National Education Policy 2010” in determining the age for admission to class I.
According to the policy, if a student is at least five years old and maximum seven years old on the first day of the academic year, they can apply for admission to class I. However, a certified copy of their online birth certificate must be submitted to determine the age. However, students with special needs also get a benefit that allows them to apply for an additional period up to five more years.
The Ministry of Education has said that 40 per cent of the total vacant seats in schools in Dhaka Metropolitan City will be reserved for students from the adjacent “catchment areas”. However, this decision will not be applicable to government and private schools outside Dhaka Metropolitan City.
According to the policy, 5 per cent of the seats in government and private schools will be reserved for the admission of children of freedom fighters and martyred freedom fighters. However, if no candidates are found, other students can be admitted to these seats. Two per cent of the seats in both types of schools will be reserved for students with special needs.
The policy also reserves 1 per cent of the seats in nearby private schools for admission to students staying in Lillah boarding schools.
The admission policy also reserves 10 per cent of class VI seats in government schools for students who passed class V from government primary schools.
Children of officials and employees of the education ministry get reservations for 0.5 per cent of the seats in government and private schools, while another 0.5 per cent is reserved for the children of officials and employees of subordinate departments and agencies.
If an applying student has a twin brother, sister or sibling already studying at a government or private school, then seats will be reserved for the applicant to get admission to that same school. Two per cent of seats will be reserved for the twin brother or sister of students already at schools and 3 per cent of seats will be reserved for the siblings of students already at the same school.
Additional seats will also be reserved at government and private schools for the eligible children of working teachers and employees. Daughters of teachers and employees of boys' schools will get this benefit in case of admission in nearby girls' or co-educational schools and sons of teachers and employees working in girls' schools will get this benefit in case of admission to nearby boys' or co-educational schools.