Prime Minister Khaleda Zia formed a national committee comprising representatives from leading English medium schools and officials of education ministry, headed by the PM's principal secretary Dr. Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, sources said.

The committee has been working for the last 11 months, aiming to regulate setting-up, registration, curriculum, examination and management of English medium schools.

Three sub-committees under the national committee have been working on framing regulations on curriculum and teacher training and remuneration.

The sub-committee on framing a regulatory body submitted its recommendation for an education board to streamline those schools around a month ago to the education ministry.

The two other sub-committees extended their deadline twice. Representatives of English medium schools have shown strong reservation to the government proposal for a unified curriculum, and teacher training, recruitment and salary policy.

All three reports will go to the national committee and seek PM”s final approval.

There has been remarkable progress in instituting a mechanism for streamlining English medium schools in keeping with country's law, culture, tradition and values, said a committee member.

"We have sent a proposed framework for a separate education board to regulate English medium schools," he said.

The proposed regulatory board will be based in the capital and will oversee curriculum and examinations.

Dr Gazi Md Ahsanul Kabir, chairman, National Curriculum and Textbook Board and convenor of the three-member sub-committee on framing the regulatory body said: "We are working on streamlining English medium schools and comprehensive work has been done so far in this regard."

Most government officials concerned with the matter have been tight-lipped on the committee's work apprehending pressure from certain quarters against such a move, sources said.

"We are aware from past experiences that influential quarters behind these enterprises will leave no stone unturned to resist any such move by the government," said a member of a sub-committee.

Education Secretary Momtajul Islam said: "A high level committee is working rigorously on how to bring the English medium schools under government control. The committee is likely to come up soon with the recommendations."

"None can catch them unless a clearly laid down legal framework is in place," said Education Minister, Dr Osman Farruk. "We have asked all English medium schools for texts and curriculum to examine what they teach."

"Exploitation, capitalising on foreign education is unprecedented anywhere in the world other than in Bangladesh," said a member of a sub-committee.

The existing East Pakistan Intermediate and Secondary Ordinance of 1961 (amended in 1962) hardly provides any legal means to regulate activities of these schools effectively.

The primary education directorate has a scant oversight on Kindergarten schools, secondary education directorate on those offering tuition up to class eight and the education board on those conducting tuition up to class 12.

But none of the authorities can take legal action against any aberrant school in absence of a governing law.

There is no effective and coordinated overview on how these schools actually deliver their business, said sources of the secondary and higher secondary education board.

The board has so far identified a total of 110 English medium schools in the capital.

These establishments are not treated as schools because they began as tutorial centres but later the entrepreneurs claimed them as schools with physical expansion of size and scope, said board sources.

Presently, Bangladeshi students appear for 'O' and 'A' (Ordinary and Advanced) level examinations held by Edexcel (Education Excellence) in the United Kingdom, said the country manager of Edexcel Saidur Rahman.

Edexcel has been operating in Bangladesh since 1973, and was affiliated with the University of London examinations board till 1996.

But it has been one of the three full-fledged and independent education boards in the United Kingdom since 1996, that has obtained approval of its curriculum from the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) of the UK.

The British Council locally facilitates academic and examination matters of Edexcel under an agreement. Edexcel itself offers courses, sets questions, holds examination and confer O and A Level qualifications.

Students also take up 'O' and 'A' level courses offered by Cambridge University under its Cambridge International Examination (CIE). Some students who take up an American high school diploma under General Education Development (GED) are left with a gross break-up in their studies, said sources.