Secondary school admission through lottery for all classes, says Dipu Moni

A digital lottery will be held in all government and private secondary schools of the country for all classes to stop the ‘admission battle’ and lobbying, Education Minister Dipu Moni has said.

 “I want the system to get out of this kind of admission war. I want the students to get out of the negative practices and come to the positive,” she said.

The minister said this while inaugurating the digital lottery at the National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) in the capital on Sunday, reports UNB.

Dipu said, "Children face a lot of stress while competing for the admission tests. An unhealthy competition can be seen as illegal issues get included.”

She said, "What we used to see in terms of admissions is the admission battle of parents and children,"

The minister also said the children who will be admitted in class one are being forced to memorize everything beyond their capacity and the parents are also memorizing with them.

Meanwhile, all the meritorious students with the highest marks are studying in one school. Quality education will be ensured if there are students of different merit together in every school, the minister added.

She said, "If students have to get higher marks after studying everything for admission, then what is the achievement of the school?”

“We’ve received positive responses from most places since last year's lottery as this system has created opportunities for establishing equality,” she said.

Earlier, a digital lottery was held on December 15 to select students for admission to government secondary schools.

Last year, a lottery was held in the metropolis. This time, the lottery was held at the district level. In the future, all the institutions will come under a lottery system for admission, said the minister.