Govt may discontinue PEC exams Hint officials

The government is yet to decide whether the Primary Education Completion Examination would be held this year.

There is a strong possibility of not holding the exam, said a top official of the primary and mass education ministry yesterday.

Because of the coronavirus situation, the exams for grade-V students were not held in the last two years.

Zakir Hossain, state minister for primary and mass education, said, "The decision has not been made yet on this issue."

He made this comment at a press conference at his secretariat office yesterday while he was also talking about the recruitment tests for appointing 45,000 assistant teachers at the government primary schools.

About the PECE, he also said, "There was a learning loss in the last two years. We want to fill this gap and then think about the test."

Responding to another question, he said, "We'll notify everyone two to three months ahead of the exams. Let the students study."

He also said that there was no recommendation for PECE in the new curriculum.

Alamgir Mohammed Monsurul Alam, director general of the Directorate of Primary Education, said the country's primary education was not exam centric.

"Children study to achieve the learning ability in line with the curriculum. There are some learning losses as they could not attend in-person classes for two years," he said.

"We have taken maximum measures to fill the learning gap. We do not want to give students the tension of the exam anymore," he added.

Zakir said that the recruitment test and appointment process of government primary school teachers is being carried out with transparency and impartiality following the recruitment rules.

All the work including roll number of the candidates, seating arrangement, the printing of question papers, evaluation of answer sheets, and preparation of results is being done automatically through the software.

"There is no scope for any kind of illegal interference".

He requested all to hand over someone to the nearest police station or inform the police station or intelligence agency if anyone was lured with a job in exchange for money.

A total of 1,309,461 candidates are sitting for a staggered recruitment test for appointing about 45,000 assistant teachers of government primary schools.