Education minister ANM Ahsanul Haque Milon on Sunday said the government would review the existing lottery system for school admissions and gather public opinion before deciding on the policy for the January 2027 academic session.

The minister made the remarks in parliament on the second day of the first session of the Jatiya Sangsad following a question from Cumilla-4 lawmaker Hasnat Abdullah.

During the discussion, Hasnat raised concerns about the impact of replacing the merit-based admission process with a lottery system.

He argued that the shift had contributed to a decline in the quality of feeder institutions and ultimately hindered the progression of capable students to universities.

The MP asked whether the government had any plan to return to merit-based admissions in schools.

Responding to the question, Milon said he personally did not consider the lottery system to be a logical approach, adding that it had been introduced by the previous government to address admission complexities in densely populated urban centres such as Dhaka.

He explained that intense competition for seats in city schools had created difficulties that the lottery mechanism was intended to ease.

The minister noted that the situation in rural areas was different, as admission there tends to be far less competitive. As a result, problems associated with school entry are generally less significant outside major urban centres.

Milon said the ministry of education did not intend to maintain the current system without further evaluation.

He said the government planned to organise seminars and consultations with stakeholders, including parents, education experts and members of parliament, to build broader public consensus before finalising the admission framework for the January 2027 academic year.

Hasnat also described the education system in Bangladesh as stratified along economic lines, with three dominant streams operating in parallel: English-medium schools typically attended by students from wealthier families, the Bengali-medium public education system serving the majority of citizens, and madrasa education often chosen by families with fewer resources.

Addressing the issue, the education minister acknowledged that coordinating these three streams—English medium, madrasa and Bengali-medium education—remained a complex challenge.

However, he said the government recognised the need to bring greater coherence to the system.

Milon said that a committee had already been formed to bring English-medium institutions under a clearer government regulatory framework so that their operations align more closely with national education policies and the broader needs of the country.