As the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations will begin from November 6, all coaching centers across the country will remain closed for 42 days, Education Minister Dipu Moni said on Wednesday.
“All the coaching centers have been ordered to shut from November 3 to December 14 to hold the HSC and equivalent examinations in a peaceful and fair manner,” she said while speaking at a press conference at the Secretariat Wednesday afternoon.
Dipu Moni said the number of examinees this year declined by 1,96,283 compared to that of last year. This year, a total of 12, 03,407 examinees will appear in the HSC examinations while the number of examinees was 13,99,690 last year, she added.
Before the press conference, a meeting was held regarding maintaining of the law and order during the examinations.
The education minister said the total number of candidates under 11 education boards- nine general education boards, one madrasas and one technical boards is 12, 03,407 this year. Of them 6, 22,796 are male examinees and 580,611 are female students. The examinations will take place from November 6 to December 13 in 2,649 centres across the country.
“We think that the total number of examinees has decreased mainly due to the decrease of irregular examinees as the number of irregular examinees in 2020 was 2, 66,501. Last year the irregular candidates were more than 1, 14,000. But this year that number is over 53,000,” said the minister.
She said various steps have been taken for holding the examinations this year in a fair manner. Candidates should enter the examination hall at least 30 minutes before the beginning of the examination. In case of late entry due to unavoidable reasons, the candidate’s roll number, time of entry, reason for delay etc, should be written in a register and reported to the concerned education board on the same day, she said, adding that which set of question papers will be distributed will be informed 25 minutes before the start of the examination.
Only the Officer-in-Charge (Secretary) of the center will be allowed to enter the center with mobile phone or electronic devices and such mobile phone must be a normal one that cannot take photograph.
Dipu Moni said this year also marks and duration of the examinations have been reduced. Candidates of science department have to answer 15 out of 25 multiple choice questions (MCQs) in 20 minutes. Three out of eight questions must be answered in the written or theory part of the test in 1 hour 40 minutes. Candidates of Humanities and Business Education will have to answer 15 out of 30 MCQs in 20 minutes. Four out of 11 questions must be answered in the theory part of the examination in 1 hour 40 minutes.
The education minister said that despite the revised syllabus, there will be full-time examinations in all subjects next year.
Deputy minister for education Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury, secondary and higher education secretary Abu Bakar Siddique and Dhaka Education Board Chairman Tapan Kumar Sarkar , among others, were present at the press conference.