Dhaka, Nov 3 (bdnews24.com)—The number of female examinees have for the first time exceeded the number of male examinees in any public examinations in the country.
Around 8,00,119 girls will be sitting for the newly introduced Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations, exceeding the number of male contenders by nearly 95 thousand.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid disclosed the information at a press briefing at the secretariat on Wednesday saying, "It is a big achievement to have the number of girls exceeding the number of boys in public exams."
All eight-grade students are participating in the exams and will not have to sit separately for their yearly exams, he added.
More than 1.5 million students will be sitting for their JSC and JDC exams from Nov 4 to 14. The JSC examination would have a common question paper for students of all the eight educational boards in the country. The JDC examination would be held separately under the Madrasa board.
The results of the JSC and JDC exams would be published by December 31, under the grading system in practice for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.
"New regulations for giving away scholarships will be drawn up in line with those under practice for the SSC and Higher Secondary Certificate examinations," Dhaka Education Board and Inter-Education Board chief Fahima Khatun said.
She added that more students will be given scholarships in this exam than previous grade-eight exams.
This year, 12,84,078 students from 18,778 schools under eight boards will sit for the JSC examination, while another 2,72,653 students under the Madrasa board will sit for the JDC exams.
Dhaka Board has the largest number of examinees, around 3,74,440 students, appearing in the JSC exam, while Sylhet Board has the lowest with only 72,500 examinees this year.
Examinations would be held at 260 centres, of which seven are located abroad.
For the first time in the country, disabled examinees would be given an extra 15 minutes to complete their exams. The decision would be enforced for the SSC and Higher Secondary Certificate exams later on.
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