This year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations have been scheduled to begin on November 14 and December 2 respectively following proper health guidelines.
The examination routines were published on Monday after being finalised by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) under the Ministry of Education.
In addition, the detailed routines and 11-point directives regarding the examinations have been published on the website of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in a circular, signed by DSHE Examination Controller Prof A S M Amirul Islam.
Equivalent examinations to the public examinations will also take place from the same dates. Earlier on September 23, Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board announced the date of Dakhil examinations.
According to the Inter-Education Coordinating Board’s Chairman Prof Nehal Ahmed, four separate proposals were sent to the Ministry of Education to begin SSC equivalent examinations on November 10, 12, 14 and 15. Later, the ministry approved to conduct SSC examination from November 14 to 23.
On the other hand, HSC examination will begin on December 2 and end on December 30. Both the examinations will be held in two shifts -- from 10 am to 11:30 pm and from 2.00 pm to 3:30 pm.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tests will be held in compliance with proper hygiene rules and examinees have been instructed to take seat in the examination halls 30 minutes before the start of the test.
The routines have created a sense of satisfaction among the students and concerned guardians as they were worried over the educational future of the candidates.
These examinations are usually scheduled in February and April every year. But, as the Covid-19 pandemic had been making an adverse impact to make educational institutions closed until Septemer 11, this month, there was an uncertainty over the holding of these two massive public examinations.
But following the government’s all out effort to overcome the stagnation in educational activities, schools and colleges reopened on September 12.
Moreover, attending different events earlier in the last few days, Education Minister Dipu Moni had been saying these exams will be held in November and December.
Earlier, although SSC examinations of 2020 were conducted in time, HSC candidates of 2020 were automatically promoted to the higher secondary levels on the basis of their SSC performance. This made a huge controversy across the country.
The government had been telling this time, it has no plan to promote students on the basis of their previous performance.
