Education Minister Dipu Moni today said that the government is considering cutting down exam days and subjects of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations that had been postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.

Dipu Moni, while speaking at webinar, also said that they are thinking of cutting down some vacations from the remainder of 2020 and 2021, so that students do not lose time in both academic years.

"There is no need to cut down the syllabus of this year's HSC exams as the students have already completed the syllabus", Dipu Moni said, while speaking at the webinar on the challenges and impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the education sector and what is to be done, organised by Education Reporters Association of Bangladesh.

She said that the HSC exams will be taken 15 days after normalcy returns after the coronavirus crisis. As it is a public exam, lakhs of people, students, guardians, members of law enforcing agencies and others all will fall under the health risk presented by the pandemic.

"We are considering a cut down in exam days and subjects of the HSC exams," she said.

HSC and its equivalent examinations were scheduled for April 1, and were postponed due to fears over spread of coronavirus.

More than one million students are expected to sit for the examinations. Exams were expected to be held at over 9,000 educational institutions across the country.

Dipu Moni said that they may extend the academic calendar for secondary students till February next year, to overcome academic losses caused by school closure due to Covid-19.

Other alternatives like syllabus and holiday cuts are also being considered, she said.

"We cannot take classes on more than 140 to 142 days of an academic year, as there are various types of vacations and programmes. So we are thinking about a cut down of the holidays of the remaining days of 2020 and full 2021 academic years," she said.

Brac University professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed, Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Choudhury and leaders of Education Reporters Association of Bangladesh spoke the programme.