The New Nation - Internet Edition

New Nation Report

Unbelievable it may sound though, a primary school level student has to pay between Tk 25,000 and Tk one lakh as admission and session fees annually to the better-known private English medium schools in Dhaka city.

These fees are in addition to high tuition fees up to Tk 4,000 a month per student. Admission and session fees are collected even from a student who gets promoted from one class to another in the same institution, it is learnt.

The practice, a random survey shows, is reckless and such private schools are out of bound for children of low income families.

The survey has shown admission fees range from Tk 10,000 in Holy Cross School, Willies Little Flower School and Lyceum International School to Tk 60,000 in the Scholastica School. Session fees vary from Tk 1,700 in Lyceum School to Tk 12,000 in Hurdco International School and Tk 15,000 in Scholastica, the school sources said.

The tuition fees charged by the schools are Tk 350 to Tk 500 from class one to class five in the Holy Cross School, Tk 750 for class II in Willies Little Flower School and College, Tk 4,000 for class VI in Hurdco International School and Tk 4,000 for the play class in Scholastica School.

Reliable sources said, there are 94 government registered 'O' level schools. Of them 36 schools offer courses from class VI to VIII.

The sources said there are at least another one hundred such English medium schools, which are being operated without any government registration and as veritable business houses, which are minting money in the name of offering education.

In addition to these English medium schools these are at least five hundred Kindergartens in the metropolis, which also charge admission, session and tuition fees at exorbitant rates. These Kindergartens are functioning hardly with any government policy guidelines.

Sources said earlier the practice was to grant registration to the Kindergartens by the Directorate of Primary Education. But now neither the Directorate of Primary Education controls them nor the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education maintains any record on such institutions.

Late in 2006 an initiative was taken to make a separate arrangement like the creation of a separate Board to look after the functioning of English medium schools and a committee headed by the then Chairman of the National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) was formed. The committee, sources said they had formed a Draft Bill for the enactment of a law in this regard.

An NCTB source told the New Nation that the committee sent its recommendation to the Ministry of Education. They are yet to know its outcome.