2026 School Admissions Start Nationwide, Lottery System Still in Place

The school admission season is set to begin across the country. For the 2026 academic year, admissions from Class 1 to Class 9 will once again be conducted through a digital lottery system. The admission circular will be published by November 19, with online applications starting on November 21. The digital lottery is expected to take place on December 14.

This decision was made at a meeting chaired by Professor B M Abdul Hannan, Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), on Monday (November 10). Several officials present at the meeting confirmed the development.

Professor Khan Mainuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, Director of the Secondary Branch at DSHE and member of the Dhaka Metropolitan Admission Committee, said, “This year too, the lottery-based admission process will be technically supported by state-owned mobile operator Teletalk. Applications will be accepted online, and the lottery will be conducted accordingly.” He noted that the decision was finalized during the meeting held from afternoon to evening on Monday under the chairmanship of the DSHE Director General.

Initially, only Class 1 admissions were handled via lottery, but since 2021 during the COVID period, the digital lottery system was extended to cover admissions from Class 1 to Class 9. This process has continued since then.

In the previous academic year, admissions were completed in 5,625 government and private schools combined, with approximately 11.17 lakh vacant seats. Of these, government schools had comparatively fewer seats—around 1.09 lakh across 680 institutions—while private schools had about 10.08 lakh seats in 4,945 institutions. Due to the limited seats in government schools, intense competition is expected again this year.

DSHE Assistant Director Ziaul Haider Henry stated that last year, a total of 9,65,704 applications were submitted. Of these, 6,25,904 were for government schools—over six times the available seats—while around 3.40 lakh applications were for private schools. Despite this, nearly 6.5 lakh seats remained vacant. He said, “Parents generally want to enroll their children in reputed schools. Competition is high in government and select well-known private schools, while many other schools have vacant seats.”

Most rules from the previous admission policy will remain unchanged. The application fee has been set at Tk 110. For rural institutions, the maximum admission fee is Tk 500; for upazila and municipal areas, Tk 1,000; and for metropolitan areas (excluding Dhaka), Tk 3,000. MPO-enrolled institutions in Dhaka can charge up to Tk 5,000, while partially MPO-enrolled ones can charge up to Tk 8,000. For English version schools, the maximum admission fee is Tk 10,000.

Additionally, development fees cannot exceed Tk 3,000, and no readmission fee can be charged for students continuing in the same institution—only the annual session charge will apply.

For Class 1 admission in 2026, a student’s age must be between 5 and 7 years, meaning their date of birth should fall between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020.