The government on Friday postponed this year’s Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations, scheduled to begin on June 19, due to the worsening flood situation.

The government decision came as the flood situation continued to deteriorate in north and north-eastern districts of Bangladesh, relatively more gravely in Sunamganj and Sylhet, with army personnel deployed to deal with the situation.

The majority educational institutions in these districts were inundated, forcing a suspension of all classroom activities in the institutions.

The suspension of one of the biggest public examinations came as a new blow for the country’s students who had earlier faced protracted closure of their educational institutions twice due to the Covid pandemic.

A press release, issued by the education ministry on Friday, said that due to the worsening flood situation the SSC general, SSC vocational and Dakhil examinations under all boards were being suspended.

The new schedule of the examinations will be announced later, the release added.

Earlier, on June 12, the education ministry had advanced the SSC and equivalent examinations of June 25 to June 24 due to the inauguration of the Padma Bridge on June 25.

Sunamganj district education officer Md Jahangir Alam told New Age on Friday that out of the 233 secondary-level educational institutions in the district over 200 were flood affected till Friday.

‘We have never seen so much water in Sunamganj city. So, you can easily think about the situation in remote areas,’ he said.

When the examinations were postponed the authorities of the educational institutions were asked to open them to flood affected people if they came for shelter, he added.

Sylhet district education officer Abu Sayed Md Abdul Wadud said that till Thursday 150 of the total 607 secondary-level educational institutions in the district were submerged or affected in the flood and classroom activities were suspended in 137 of these institutions.

Fifty-nine of the institutions were being used as shelters for flood-affected people, he said, adding, ‘The number of flood-affected institutions is increasing.’

Sylhet district primary education officer Shakhawat Ershad said that 463 of the 1,477 primary-education institutions were almost under water where flood shelters even could not be opened.

‘The situation is worse in Companiganj, Gowainghat and Kanaighat areas,’ he added.

This year, 20,21,868 candidates are scheduled to take the SSC and equivalent examinations.

The education ministry had earlier announced the probable dates for beginning this year’s SSC and equivalent examinations on June 19 and Higher School Certificate and equivalent examinations on August 22.

Earlier, due to the Covid situation, the classroom activities in all the educational institutions across Bangladesh remained suspended from March 18, 2020 to September 11, 2021 in the first spell.

Later, the outbreak of the Omicron variant forced the second halt to in-person classes in all educational institutions across the country between January 21 and February 21 this year.

In 2020, the SSC and equivalent examinations were held physically as usual, while the Junior School Certificate and equivalent examinations and the Primary Education Completion examinations could not be held due to the Covid outbreak and ‘auto pass’ was granted to the students.

In the same year, the HSC and equivalent examinees were awarded grade points using the subject-mapping method based on their results in the SSC and JSC and their equivalent examinations.

In 2021, the SSC examinations were held in November and the HSC exams in December after a gap of one year.

Before the pandemic, the SSC and equivalent examinations were usually held in February and the HSC and equivalent examinations in April.