SSC, HSC exams to cover all subjects in 2023 as pandemic ebbs

The government plans to include all subjects in the exams for Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate in 2023, ending three years of coronavirus-induced suspension or curtailment of the tests.

The tests will be held on the rearranged syllabuses of 2022, according to a notice issued by Bangladesh Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee on Thursday.

The SSC exams of all subjects, except ICT, will have 100 marks. The students will have three hours to write the answers. The marks on the ICT test will be 50. SSC exams will have 100 marks in all subjects.

This year, the SSC exams are scheduled to begin on Jun 19 and HSC on Aug 22, four months behind the expected time as the students did not attend classes throughout 2021 due to the pandemic. The situation has now improved with no deaths from the disease reported for 21 days.

Religion and moral education, ICT, Bangladesh and global studies, and science tests will not be held for SSC this year. The students will be graded through subject mapping in these subjects. Subject mapping will also be used for grading HSC students in ICT.

The students will have two hours for the tests. Bangla Paper II, and English Paper I and II tests will have 50 marks. The written exams of the subjects with practical tests will have 45 marks.

The SSC and HSC exams were held months behind schedule in November and December last year due to the pandemic following the resumption of in-person classes. The syllabuses were shortened, while the tests were held on three elective subjects only.

In 2020, the SSC exams were completed before the coronavirus cases were found in Bangladesh. Though the HSC exams were to be held in April, the pandemic shut educational institutions in March.

Instead of tests, the results of the HSC in 2020 were based on the student performances in Junior School Certificate and SSC exams.