The minister for education and primary and mass education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon, said on Sunday that the government is reviewing the current primary school admission process and will decide on the system for 2027 after consulting the relevant stakeholders.
Responding to a supplementary question from Md Abul Hasnat of the Cumilla-4 constituency in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS), the minister explained that admission pressure is mostly seen in urban areas, particularly in Dhaka, while rural schools generally do not face such competition due to lower student numbers.
"The lottery system was introduced earlier to address admission pressure in city schools, but I personally do not think it is a very logical system," Milon told the House.
He added that the government will hold seminars and discussions with stakeholders, including parents, to build public opinion before finalising the admission system for January 2027.
Hasnat Abdullah had expressed concern over the shift from merit-based admission to a lottery system at the primary level. He argued that the change has weakened the quality of feeder institutions, which ultimately affects the standard of students entering universities.
In response, the education minister acknowledged that Bangladesh currently has multiple streams of education, including Bangla medium, English medium, madrasa, and Qawmi systems, and said integrating these is a complex challenge.
However, Milon noted that the government has already formed a committee to bring English-medium schools under a regulatory framework aligned with national policies.
He added that work has also begun to reform the Ebtedayee (primary madrasa) system and explore ways to incorporate Qawmi-based education within a broader national framework.
"We are taking initiatives to gradually coordinate these different streams so that the education system becomes more unified in the future," he concluded.
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