No JSC exam this year: Education Minister

The Junior School Certificate (JSC) and other equivalent examinations will not be held this year, said Education Minister Dipu Moni.

She came up with the disclosure at a press conference at the secretariat on Sunday. The event was organised to reveal the progress in teacher recruitment under the Non-Government Teachers' Registration & Certification Authority (NTRCA).

Replying to a query from the newspersons, the Education Minister said the JSC exam has been excluded in the new curriculum scheduled to take effect in 2024. Now, there is no reason to hold the exam next year (2023).

The JSC and equivalent examinations did not take place in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The officials concerned have long been indicating that the JSC and its equivalent Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations are unlikely to be held this year.

In a recent conversation with Prothom Alo, Tapan Kumar Sarker, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Dhaka, said it is quite impossible to arrange JSC and JDC examinations in November, after holding two other public exams -- SSC and HSC – as per schedule.

The SSC exam will commence in June. Besides, the HSC exam will begin in August and end in October. In such a circumstance, it is too tough to hold the JSC examinations, he added.

Generally, the JSC and JDC examinations take place in November. But the authorities shut all educational institutions in March, 2020 to tame the tide of coronavirus. The closure remained in place for 18 months, forcing the authorities to suspend the examinations for the two years.

In 2020, the students were promoted to the upper grades without any examination. The schools and colleges held annual examinations in a curtailed syllabus in the following year. Like the previous year, the class-8 students will sit in the annual exam this year and be promoted to the next class.