The education ministry is unhappy with a project, the first of its kind it initiated a year ago, where around 18,000 private and public schools were asked to self-assess their standard and progress.

Secondary Education Sector Development Project, the project of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), was conducted on 17,873 secondary schools of 482 upazilas.

The project officials held a workshop at National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) in the city yesterday where they announced a grading of the schools as per the self-evaluation report.

The ministry officials present at the workshop expressed their dissatisfaction over the method, saying it did not reflect the real picture of the schools.

“The questionnaire was subjective,” said Education Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, adding that it took for granted that the headmasters would provide the true information and there is no scope to re-check the information.

Additional Secretary SM Golam Faruk agreed, saying that there were some exaggerations as the ministry's information about the schools contradicts the report.

The headmasters of the schools prepared the evaluation report by filling up forms on the basis of 45 subindicators of seven main indicators

within April 30. The upazila and district education officers sent the forms to DSHE after scrutiny.

Categorisation came with 2,455 schools graded as A (very good), 8,897 as B (good), 4,749 as C (medium), 1,619 as D (weak), and 153 as E (ineffective).

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said there might be some limitations since the evaluation was done for the first time and that is why it seemed subjective.

He said it is possible to know the weaknesses of the institutions. From now on the headmasters would send their evaluation by January 31, he added.

Nahid, however, asked to form an expert committee which will prepare the questionnaire for the next year.