With syllabi incomplete, HSC exams pushed back by a month

The authorities have decided to defer the Higher Secondary Certificate or HSC and equivalent exams, which were scheduled to start in July this year, by a month.

The inter-education board coordination committee took the decision as the colleges could not cover the syllabi, Tapan Kumar Sarkar, convenor of the committee and chairman of Dhaka Education Board, said on Wednesday.

A new date to begin the exams will be announced later.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Secondary School Certificate exams used to start in February and HSC tests in April.

The higher secondary assessments were based on abridged syllabi, while the number of subjects was also reduced in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic.

The 2022 HSC and equivalent exams started on Nov 6 after a lengthy delay due to the coronavirus pandemic and devastating floods in the northeast.

This year, the exams will be held on the entire syllabi but many colleges could not cover all the lessons, although they held in-person classes for 15 months.