Bangladesh plans home exams for primary school students

The government is planning home examinations for primary school students to keep them in study amid the coronavirus outbreak that has forced education institutions shut.

The new method will allow the teachers to send the question papers to the parents and collect answer sheets for evaluation.

But it will not be a compulsory method as it will be a difficult one to implement for the schools in Dhaka, divisional cities, and district towns, said officials at the primary and mass education ministry.

According to the primary education calendar, the first semester exams were supposed to be held between Apr 15 and 23, second semester between Aug 9 and 20 and annual exams between Dec 2 and 15. The Primary Education Completion or PEC exams for fifth graders were slated for Nov 19 to 30.

The students of grades one to five could not take the first semester exams as the institutions have been closed since Mar 17 after the detection of the first coronavirus cases.

They will remain closed until September if the coronavirus crisis continues, Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina had said.

Sangsad TV began broadcasting lessons while teachers of some institutions are giving lessons online, Primary and Mass Education Secretary Akram Al-Hossain told bdnews24.com on Thursday.

"We are thinking about how to evaluate the lessons learnt by the students. The students will study properly if the assessment is done every week. It will help the students complete their lessons and get evaluated,” he said.

In the new method, the students will stay at home and take the lessons on TV, he said. The teachers will make the question papers and send those to the parents who will send back answer scripts to the teachers.

A few volunteers can be assigned to carry the question papers and answer scripts in case parents are unable to collect and send those back, Akram added.

The secretary believes it will be easier for the institutions in rural areas to follow the method as most of their teachers and students live near the institutions.

Md Fashiullah, director general of primary education, said teachers in some areas have already launched the method by providing the students with question papers and answer scripts every week.