Parliament passes amendment bill to publish HSC results, gazette 'in two days'

Parliament has approved an amendment to the existing law to allow the government to publish the outcome of last year's Higher Secondary Certificate exams.

A gazette will be issued within the next two days after which, the results will be announced, according to Education Minister Dipu Moni.

She made the remarks on Sunday while the parliament was in the process of passing three bills, the Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill 2021, Bangladesh Technical Education Board (Amendment) Bill 2021 and Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board (Amendment) Bill 2021.

More than 1.3 million students are awaiting the results, which will be determined using a stop-gap system of averaging the scores of the JSC and SSC assessments as the HSC exams were cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the authorities were barred from publishing the results without actually holding the HSC and equivalent examinations under the previous legal framework.

The new law will enable the education authorities to release results and give out certificates without holding exams or by arranging exams on short syllabuses in cases of a pandemic, epidemic, natural calamities or any other unavoidable circumstances.

"We are ready. We had prepared to release results in December by passing the bills in the form of three ordinances. But since the parliament was convening on Jan 18, we decided to table it in the form of bills instead of ordinances," said Dipu Moni.

"Once the bills are passed, it will take around two days to issue a gazette. After that, we will publish the results so there is no scope for any delay."