The Secondary School Certificate and equivalent dakhil and vocational examinations begin today with students taking the Bangla first paper exams amid rumors of question papers being leaked.
Guardians and students alleged that ‘questions’ for Sunday’s Bangla and others exams were making rounds on social networking sites and were being texted among examinees on Saturday.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, however, told reporters that all these were rumors. ‘In the past we heard such allegation of questions being leaked but we
found that there were some similarities between the suggestions making rounds and what were there in the question papers.’
‘We know such suggestions are available on Facebook. We are monitoring them. The authorities concerned should take action against people spreading such things,’ he
said.
Nahid at a press briefing at the ministry on Saturday said that all preparations had been made for the examinations. Only the centre secretaries will be allowed to use
mobile at the centres, he said.
Allegation of questions being leaked surfaced during the Junior School Certificate and Primary Education Completion Examinations in the past year. A government
investigation committee found handwritten ‘questions’ of Bangla and English exams of primary level of 50 and 80 marks out of 100 in common with question papers.
During the primary completion exams in 2012, guardians levelled allegations that question papers for different subjects such as English and mathematics had been
leaked.
This year, 14,32,727 students — 7,33,202 boys and 6,99,525 girls — of 27,489 institutions are expected to take the exams at 2842 centers across the country. Of the
total students, 12,75,159 are regular and 1,57,568 are irregular students.
The number of students have increased by 1,29,554 from the past year’s 13,03,203.
This year, 10,90,555 students will take the SSC exams under eight general education boards, 2,39,749 students under madrassah board and 1,02,423 students will take the
exams under the technical education board.
Nahid will visit the Mothijheel Government Boys’ High School centre this morning.
This year, exams of 21 subjects other than Bangla first and second papers, English first and second papers and mathematics will be held in keeping with creative
questions. Question papers of the creative methods will be the same for all boards.
A total of 296 overseas students will also take the exams in seven overseas centres under the Dhaka education board.
Students with disabilities will get a 20-minute extra for each paper in the exam halls, the minister said.
The written exams will end on March 22 and practical exams will begin on March 23. The results would be published in 60 days after the exams.
-With New Age input
