THE number of English-medium school students is steadily increasing, and they are playing an important role in brightening our image in the world as many Bangladeshi students are scoring high in the O Level and A Level examinations. So I was happy when the High Court asked the university authorities to prepare separate question papers for the English-medium students so that they also get an equal opportunity with Bengali-medium students to sit for admission tests in public universities. At present we find that many middle class families prefer English-medium schools and many companies prefer to recruit employees who are from the English-medium background. This has been happening in other countries as well. Education in English medium has of late achieved greater prominence with globalisation. The necessity of increased communication among countries has prompted increased learning in English. We must open the opportunity for higher number of students from English-medium and allow them to sit for the admission tests in public universities. At present, it is difficult for the English-medium students to sit for admission tests in public universities as the question papers are based on Bangla curriculum and they have to compete with the Bangla-medium students, which is not fair. So we see in the reputed public universities the number of English-medium school students are quite few and far between. If we have two sets of question papers separately, there will be more opportunities for admission of English-medium students in public universities. But I am sure if they get equal opportunity, their number will increase. Many bright students are coming from the English-medium background and we should not discourage them.
Masud Rana
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
