Students not allowed to reduce their age anymore

Published at 09:17 pm February 3rd, 2021

Students going to the ony government primary school at the tea garden Dhaka Tribune

The government says a birth certificate must be produced during public examination registration

The government will not allow students to unethically reduce their age anymore, said the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.

Additional Secretary (Development) Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Ratan Chandra Pandit said: "We already instructed the Department of Primary Education in this regard. They will implement it soon,” reports Bangla Tribune.

A birth registration certificate must be submitted in pre-primary and first-grade admission in schools.

Registration for public examinations will also be based on the birth certificate to prevent students from changing their date of birth at will.

The concerned ministries have also been directed to take action as per the decision of the government.

On Saturday, the Department of Primary Education directed the divisional deputy director, district primary education officers, and upazila education officers to take necessary steps regarding this.

Earlier on January 12, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education directed the director general of the Department of Primary Education to collect and preserve the birth certificates of the students for admission purposes.

The directive said a meeting chaired by the senior secretary of the Local Government department took a decision to curb the trend of lowering the age of students unethically on December 10, 2020.

According to the decision, in case of admission in educational institutions, it is necessary to ensure the use of birth certificates during public examination registrations.

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As a part of the decision, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education also directed the directorate on January 12.

On January 19, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education made it compulsory for students to register their birth certificates under the directive from the stipend scheme for primary education (Phase III).

The order, signed by Project Director Yusuf Ali, said the Registrar General of Birth Registration confirmed that the registration process of more than 3,000 of the 4,500 unions across the country had been upgraded.

If anyone faces any problem regarding this, the upazila education officer will solve the problem by contacting the upazila nirbahi officer.

Otherwise, the district primary education officer will contact the DDLG of the deputy commissioner's office.

There is no registration activity recorded in Cox's Bazar sadar, Yusuf said.

However, a task force has been formed for the upazilas of the district.

The parents of the students in Cox's Bazar district will contact the task force of the concerned upazila and collect their birth registration respectively, he added.