Education boards in the country are considering reforms in the process of admission in the higher secondary level exams following allegations of irregularities in some colleges.
Board officials said the new system would be based online completely and maintained centrally by the board to ensure smooth running of the process.
“We are working on how best to manage the admission process. We will take measures so that the deserving students are not deprived of an admission,” said Taslima Begum, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, while talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
She said the board would sit with college principals after Eid and discuss the reform.
According to board officials, if the reform proposal is implemented, students will apply for admission once, in a combined system.
At present, students apply separately at different colleges. In the new system, students will mention their choices of colleges. The boards will centrally manage the admission process.
As colleges will no longer be directly involved in the admission process, student leaders will not be able to influence the admission process.
The irregularities in the admission test include influential Bangladesh Chhatra League activists putting pressure on the authorities to admit students according to their choice in some colleges.
On June 26 this year, activist of Chhatra League’s unit in Dhaka College, vandalised the college premises when the authorities did not allow admission of the students of their choice.
There were also reports of clashes in Rajshahi College on June 23 and in Rajshahi New Government Degree College on Wednesday regarding HSC admission. Similar incidents reportedly took place in other colleges across the country as well.
In Narayanganj Government Mohila College, admission seekers confined the principal and staged demonstrations on the campus on July 15 in protest of what they said was the admission trade of Chhatra League activists.
The students of the college have been protesting admission irregularities since June 30 on the campus.
When asked about the accusation, Principal Gopal Chandra Saha denied the allegation of taking money in exchange of enrolments.
However, he admitted that he had been compelled to enrol some students because of political pressure.