United News of Bangladesh

A total of 79,246 students have been awarded scholarships in the Primary Scholarship Examination, with 32,965 securing Talentpool scholarships and 46,281 receiving General scholarships. Some 35,892 scholarship recipients are boys, accounting for 45.29 percent, while 43,354 are girls, representing 54.71 percent, said Education Minister Ehsanul Hoque Milon on Sunday at a press briefing at the International Mother Language Institute in the capital. He said the Primary Scholarship Examination-2025 was held in April this year for fifth-grade students with the aim of identifying and recognising academic excellence and encouraging educational institutions to help build a knowledge-based generation, said the minister. More than 6,40,000 students took part in this year's examination including around 550,000 from government primary schools and about 90,000 from non-government primary schools and kindergartens, he said. Under the Primary Scholarship Examination Policy-2026, the government planned to award 82,500 scholarships nationwide, including 33,000 Talentpool scholarships and 49,500 General scholarships. For Talentpool scholarships, 80 percent of the quota was allocated to government primary school students and 20 percent to students from non-government institutions. Of the 49,500 General scholarships, 39,600 were allocated to government primary schools on the basis of five scholarships for each union and ward—two for boys, two for girls and one on merit.  The remaining 20 percent of General scholarships were reserved for students of non-government institutions at the upazila level, he said. Aa total of 78,810 educational institutions participated in the examination including 65,605 government primary schools and 13,205 non-government schools, said the minister. The number of registered candidates stood at 645,041, including 256,117 boys and 388,924 girls. A total of 419,982 students appeared in the examination, representing 65.11 percent of registered candidates.  Among them, 344,127 students from government schools, or 62.01 percent of registered candidates in that category, and 75,855 students from non-government institutions, or 84.16 percent, sat for the examination. Of the examinees, 166,641 were boys (39.68 percent) and 253,341 were girls (60.32 percent). Among the Talentpool scholarship recipients, 26,375 are from government primary schools and 6,590 from non-government institutions. Of the 46,281 General scholarship recipients, 36,420 are from government schools and 9,861 from non-government schools. The minister said the scholarship results have already started being uploaded at the Directorate of Primary Education in Mirpur and the entire process is expected to be completed within the next two to three hours.