SSC exams begin after nine-month delay

This year's Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent exams are set to begin today, after over a nine-month delay due to the Covid-19 situation.

The exams are usually held in February.

The number of examinees for this year's exams has increased compared to last year.

This year, the examinees will only have to sit for exams in three optional subjects with a shortened syllabus and carrying fewer marks.

Exams for science, humanities and business groups will be held on separate days.

They will not have to sit for tests in compulsory subjects like Bangla, English and Mathematics.

The results of the three optional subjects and the Grade Point Average of the students' previous public examinations, including Junior School Certificate tests, will be taken into consideration in the final results.

The exam duration for each paper will be one and a half hours and there will be no break between MCQ and written tests. Covid-19 health guidelines will be strictly followed during the exams, the authorities said.

Education Minister Dipu Moni at a press conference on October 27 said the results will be published within 30 days after the exams end on November 23.

Meanwhile, all coaching centres will remain closed from November 8 to 25, she added.

She also said a total of 22,27,113 students are expected to take part in this SSC exams. This year, the number of examinees has gone up by 1,79,334 from last year.

Of the candidates, 11.98 lakh are girls and 10.28 lakh boys.

Students from 29,035 schools, madrasas and technical institutions will sit for the exams at 3,679 centres across the country.

Around 18,00,998 students will participate in SSC exams under nine general education boards.

Of them, 9.20 lakh are girls and 8.80 lakh boys, according to education ministry data.

About the increase in the number SSC candidates amid the Covid-19 situation, Prof Nehal Ahmed, Dhaka Education Board chairman and chief of Inter-education Board Coordination Sub-committee, said as the schools did not need to hold any exams for this year's candidates, the number has gone up.

Dipu said if anyone is infected with Covid-19 and hospitalised and they want to take part in the exams, the education board concerned can make the decision in this regard.

MARKS DISTRIBUTION

Science students will need to get marks out of 32 in each paper, while those from humanities and business groups out of 45, said officials of education boards.

"We have uploaded the marks distribution of the SSC exams on the websites of boards and all educational institutions have already been notified of it," said Nehal.

Students will get one hour and 15 minutes to answer written questions and 15 minutes to answer multiple choice questions (MCQ).

According to directives, science students will need to write answers of two out of eight questions and the total marks will be out of 20. They will need to answer 12 out of 25 MCQs and total marks will be given out of 12.

Humanities and business students will need to write down answers to three out of 11 questions and marks will be out of 30, while they will need to answer 15 out of 30 MCQ questions and marks will be out of 15.