Examinees, guardians demand deferral of HSC
The dengue situation has become severe across the country and so some of the examinees of HSC and equivalent exams and their guardians want the exam to be deferred for a few more days instead of on 17 August.
However, the education boards are saying the exam dates cannot be deferred despite a section of students demanding the postponement of HSC exams. The exams are to be held on schedule.
The national monitoring and disciplinary committee regarding holding the HSC exams in a fair and conducive environment has called a meeting today, Tuesday. Education minister Dipu Moni is to brief about the meeting at 3:00 pm.
The HSC and equivalent exams will start on 17 August. The exam schedule has been announced. All other preparations are almost complete as well.
According to the sources in the education boards, initially the education boards planned to hold the exams in July. However, there were objections over this as the students would have to sit in the exam within 15 months of starting their higher secondary classes. However, the academic session of higher secondary students is two years long.
For this, the educationists and guardians have been saying taking exams abruptly puts the student under huge pressure. It creates the risk of a learning deficit and they will have to go to the coaching centres to cover the gap. Therefore the question arises as to what is the benefit of taking the exams earlier when there is no coordination between higher studies and HSC exams? The education boards decided to reconsider the issue after several media reports over this and decided to hold the HSC and equivalent exams in August instead of July.
Now there is an outbreak of dengue. There are water logging-related problems due to heavy rainfall in many parts of the country. For these reasons, some of the examinees and their guardians demand the deferral of HSC exams. Many of the students cannot prepare properly due to dengue. Guardians of several HSC have even called Prothom Alo to press their demand. Many students have emailed Prothom Alo with the same demand.
Prothom Alo spoke to president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and chairman of the Dhaka Education Board Tapan Kumar Sarker regarding this issue.
He said, “So far, we have no plan to postpone the exams. All the necessary preparations are completed. We are still sticking to our decision to hold the exam in August.”
In-person classes were postponed for one and a half years from March 2020 due to the outbreak of coronavirus, which hampered the education system greatly. It is yet to be normalised. The HSC exams were held in the months of April and May in normal times. Now it is being held in August.