The monthly pay order (MPO) facility would be provided to the non-government educational institutions on the basis of performance index not on political consideration, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday.

"A bad practice of giving political consideration has been developed under this process…but we will maintain transparency in bringing the institutions under the MPO," he told the journalists at a press conference of the ministry.

The minister said it would not be possible to bring all educational institutions, which are waiting to be placed under government's payroll, under the MPO using a limited allocation of Tk 112 crore as the number of such institutions has increased significantly in last six years.

He however could not specify the number of educational institutions to be brought under the MPO this year.

Underprivileged in education and geographically disadvantaged areas, hilly, haor-baor and char areas, educational institutions for ensuring female education, socially disadvantaged groups, persons with disability and specialised institutions will get special consid eration in MPO enlistment, he said.

He said around 3,118 headmasters of lower secondary schools, 12,400 assistant headmasters of secondary schools and 5,141 superintendents and 5,141 assistant superintendents of Dakhil madrasas will get their salary under the recently upgraded pay scale.

The minister pointed out many issues, including distribution of textbooks, terminal examinations in class VIII and creative question method.

Regarding textbook distribution, he said though textbooks were distributed in the remote areas of the country in time, some problems occurred in distributing books in Dhaka.

Holding the district education officer (DEO) of Dhaka responsible for the problems, the minister said despite having books in his office, the DEO made a delay to distribute the textbooks for serving his bad intention.

"It would be difficult to find any institution which did not get books by now," he said adding the institutions that gave their demands to the respective education offices have received books.

About the terminal examination, he said like primary terminal exams the government has decided to take a public examination for class VIII to ensure standard of education and reduce dropout rate.

A student has to wait for six years to get SSC certificate but the government will give certificates in class VIII to encourage poor parents to let their children study further, Nahid said.

The examination would create a pressure on the students, teachers and schools to obtain better results, as it would be held simultaneously across the country using same question papers, he said.

About the creative question method, he said students will be tested in two subjects-- Bangla 1st paper and religious studies--using the new method for the first time in the upcoming SSC examination.

The government, however, has decided not to introduce the creative question method for mathematics in the SSC examinations to be held in 2011, he added.

Education Secretary Syed Ataur Rahman and high officials of the ministry were present at the press conference.