THE Government of Bangladesh has been awarding stipends to poor and meritorious students doing well in public examinations like PSC, JSC, SSC, HSC to encourage them and provide relief to their families and support them financially. In recent years, the number of stipends against PSC and JSC examinations has been increased as the number of students also increased many fold. It is learnt that the stipends are allocated on the basis of the number of students in each upazila area to ensure equitable distribution of stipends for all geographical areas of the country. No doubt, these stipends encourage students to concentrate on study.
 Each student under the talent pool gets Tk 600 per month while an achiever of general category stipend gets Tk 350 per month for next two years. In addition, each stipend recipient gets an additional amount of Tk 300 each per year to purchase educational accessories. Admittedly, this is a noble effort by the government, but the amount of scholarship is very insufficient considering the commodity prices. To make the stipend meaningful, the amount of scholarship per month should be at least Tk 1,000 for talent pool and Tk 800 for others and the allowance to purchase educational accessories may be Tk 1,000 per year per head. The number of stipend for SSC and HSC examinations are very insignificant considering the total number of students. The number of stipends should also be raised to at least four times the present number. The expense on education is regarded as an investment all over the world and it should be treated in the same manner in our country.
Md. Ashraf Hossain
120, Central Bashabo, Dhaka.
mah120cb@yahoo.com
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