Bangladesh readies bills to publish results of HSC, equivalent exams amid pandemic

The government has proposed legal amendments in parliament to publish the outcome of last year's Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent exams in an alternative evaluation method amid the coronavirus crisis.

Education Minister Dipu Moni presented the Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill 2021, Bangladesh Technical Education Board (Amendment) Bill 2021 and Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board (Amendment) Bill 2021 in parliament on Tuesday.

The parliamentary standing committee on the education ministry was then asked to submit a report on the intermediate and secondary education bill within a day and on the other two in two days.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam had earlier said the government would publish the results of HSC and equivalent exams by Jan 28 if the bills were approved.

While presenting the bills, Dipu Moni said, “The results of HSC and equivalent exams are ready. The existing laws state that results must be submitted after taking the exams, but we were unable to hold the exams due to the global pandemic this time.”

“If the parliament passes the laws, we will be able to release the results right away.”

HSC and equivalent exams were slated to begin on Apr 1 but were eventually cancelled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Dipu Moni later announced that the yearly tests would be replaced with a stop-gap system of averaging the scores of the JSC and SSC exams.

Dipu Moni said that the new laws propose that in cases of epidemics, pandemic, natural calamities or due to unavoidable circumstances determined by the government, if it is not possible to hold exams, publish results or issue certification, an evaluation method could be allowed by the government which could release results and give out certificates without holding exams or arranging exams on short syllabuses.