The Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations for 2021 started on Sunday amid violation of social distancing outside the exam centres in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Huge gatherings of guardians were common scenarios outside the centres during the exams though inside the centres students were seen following health rules, including wearing masks and maintaining social distances.

While visiting the Motijheel Government Boys School SSC exam centre in Dhaka, education minister Dipu Moni acknowledged the problem.

‘At most of the educational  institutions there are no places for guardians to wait,’ she said, urging the guardians not to gather outside the centres.

The SSC examinations are usually held in the first week of February and the Higher Secondary Certificate exams in March. But this year the exams have been deferred to November and December respectively due to the pandemic situation.

Dipu Moni said that they would try hard to hold the next year’s SSC, HSC and equivalent examinations in May and June respectively.

‘It will not be possible to take the SSC and HSC exams in February and March in 2022 as the candidates need some time to complete their syllabus,’ she said.

Among the 22,27,113 examinees across the country, SSC candidates took the physics (theory) examinations on the first day and Dakhil candidates took either Quran Mazid and Tazbid or Physics.

A total of 3,548 or 0.73 per cent of students under nine general boards were absent in the exam centres on the first day while two exam room inspectors were expelled in Barishal. Two students were expelled in Barishal and Dinajpur respectively.

At least 9,894 or 3.67 per cent of students under the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board were absent on the first day and 10 students were expelled from the centres.

A total of 5,378 or 3.76 per cent of students under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board were absent in the exam centres on the first day and 19 students were expelled.

During her visit, Dipu Moni said that there were attempts to spread rumours over question leak and added that stern action would be taken against the people responsible.

Replying to a question, the minister said with the implementation of the new curriculum the Junior School Certificate examinations might not be held.

About the shortened SSC question papers, she said that not only the long examination but also continuous assessment was necessary to assess a student.

The minister said that they were trying to vaccinate the HSC exam candidates before the exams started on December 2.

About 1.5 lakh students, aged between 12 to 17 years, have already received vaccines, she said, adding that they were trying to vaccinate all students across the country.

This year the exams of three different groups — science, commerce and humanities — are being held at separate times to maintain social distancing.

The number of the exams has been reduced to three for each of the students while the syllabuses and the examination duration have also been reduced as the exams are being held for one and a half hours.

Coaching centres across the country were asked to remain closed from November 8 to November 25 to prevent question paper leak.

In 2020, the JSC, SSC and equivalents exams were held normally while the subject mapping method was used to publish the results of the HSC and equivalent examinations based on the results of the SSC, the JSC and equivalent examinations.

The classroom activities of educational institutions across the country remained suspended due to the Covid situation from March 18, 2020 till September 11 this year.