What Notre Dame College says about Class-XI admissions for SSC graduates

Following the publication of the results of the 2026 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations, students are now waiting for the Class-XI admission process to begin.

Notre Dame College is among the institutions that feature prominently on students’ lists of preferred colleges. The college has now issued a notice regarding its admission process.

In a notice signed by the college principal and issued on Monday (10 August), following the publication of the SSC results, the college said, “Students wishing to apply for admission to Notre Dame College are hereby informed that, as soon as we receive the education board’s admission guidelines, all relevant information concerning admission to this college will be published on Notre Dame College’s official website.”

Meanwhile, the admission process for Class-XI at higher-secondary level will proceed as before in the upcoming academic year. Students will be admitted on the basis of their SSC and equivalent examination results.

Applications will be submitted centrally online, while admissions will be conducted on the basis of merit and students’ order of preference.

However, because the pass rate has fallen significantly this year, more than half of the available seats are expected to remain vacant. Around 1.361 million seats are likely to remain unfilled.

Dhaka Education Board Chairman Professor Syed Akhtaruzzaman provided various details about Class-XI admissions at a press conference held at the Ministry of Education on Monday following the publication of the SSC and equivalent examination results.

He said the admission process would remain unchanged. “There will be neither a lottery system nor an admission test. In other words, seats will be allocated under the existing system, based on GPA and students’ preferences,” he said.

For the past several years, students have been admitted to Class-XI on the basis of their SSC and equivalent examination results. Under this system, prospective students must apply online, paying the prescribed fee, and list a minimum of five and a maximum of 10 colleges or equivalent educational institutions in order of preference.

Students are subsequently nominated for admission to one institution after their results, quota status, where applicable, and order of preference are taken into consideration.

This system is used for admissions to colleges and madrasahs only. Admissions to institutions under the Technical Education Board are conducted through a separate process.

Apart from a few institutions, including Notre Dame College in Dhaka, almost all colleges and madrasahs across the country admit students to Class-XI through this system.

The Dhaka Education Board conducts the centralised online admission process with technical assistance from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Following the change of government, there had been discussions over whether admission tests might also be introduced for Class-XI.

Syed Akhtaruzzaman said there would be somewhat more vacant seats in 2026 than the number of students who secured admission in 2025.

There are approximately 2.5 million seats available for Class-XI admission at colleges and madrasahs across the country. Last year, 58.7 per cent of the total available seats were filled, leaving 41.3 per cent vacant.

“This year, the pass rate has fallen further. As a result, a slightly larger number of seats will remain vacant,” he said.

The results of the 2026 SSC and equivalent examinations were published on 10 August. A total of 1,829,485 candidates appeared for the examinations under 11 education boards, of whom 1,138,877 passed. Nearly 700,000 candidates failed to pass.

The figures indicate that even if every student who passed under all education boards, including the Technical Education Board, were to secure admission, around 1.361 million seats would still remain vacant.

Seats remain vacant in other years as well. However, the lower pass rate this year is expected to further increase the number of unfilled seats.