School authorities to face music for charging ‘excess fees’ during admission: Dipu Moni

Education Minister Dipu Moni has warned that school authorities would face penalty if they charge excess fees for admitting a student.

The minister made the statement while attending a central lottery event to finalise the aspirants for admission to the government schools at the International Mother Language Institute in the capital today.

Dipu Moni said the steps of holding such a lottery have been taken to stop the "unwanted lobbying in the admission process and the admission coaching trade".

Admissions to all government and non-government secondary schools for the next academic session is scheduled to be completed under a central lottery system.

The lottery for non-government schools is expected to be held on December 19.

Dipu Moni said that there are allegations that many authorities try to realise "excess fees" during admission. "If we get the allegations and it is proved, we would take actions against the authorities," she said.

She added that many "result-centric" parents go for wrong forms of competition to enrol their children into reputed schools. "As a result, students go through mental pressure."

Many do not even hesitate to choose the immoral path (by paying extra) to get their children admitted to such schools, she said.

Such ill practices can be curbed by the lottery system of admission, the minister added.

A total of 5,36,153 aspirants collected the admission forms against 60,016 vacant seats for class 1 to 9 in 405 government schools across the country.