The interim government has conceded to the student demand for cancellation of examinations in the remaining subjects of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations that had to be postponed earlier on account of the quota movement and anti-discrimination mass uprising. Reportedly a few hundred students stormed into the secretariat to press for cancellation of exams on Tuesday. The protesting students have made it clear that they favour publication of results on the basis of subject mapping in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.
Not all examinees may agree with this defective system of merit evaluation. Already general students of the Notre Dame College have expressed their dissent. They highlight the demerit of subject mapping and the intriguing problem of evaluation of performances by those examinees who have changed groups. Students from humanities group at the SSC level may enrol for science or commerce group and the vice versa in colleges. What will be the basis for evaluation of their performances?
The Covid-19 pandemic forced an auto pass in 2020 without any examination. That was an extraordinary situation arising out of the pandemic's protocol. In 2021, the SSC and HSC examinees appeared for examinations on a reduced number of subjects bearing half the marks. This means that the evaluation of the HSC candidates was done on the basis of the combined marks examinees obtained in their previous two public examinations ---the Junior School Certificate and the SSC examinations.
Now here is a catch-22 situation. Candidates of certain disciplines, who somehow did not do particularly well in some less important subjects in the JSC examinations were evaluated at the SSC level on the basis of marks they obtained in those subjects. But the irony is that examinations were not at all held for those subjects in the SSC examinations. Then this legacy was borne at the HSC level and even if they scored A+ in all the subjects of the last public examinations, the previous two examinations' average marks brought the GPA 5 down. Thus they could not get admission to colleges of their choice in the first place and then did not even qualify for applying to reputed public universities for admission.
Those who prepared themselves painstakingly for the examinations in the full syllabus and all the papers for the first time after the epidemic are unlikely to rejoice over this unexpected cancellation of examinations in the remaining subjects. Many of the students now in favour of cancellation may rue over the opportunity they themselves allowed to slip. The HSC examinees had completed examinations in half of their subjects before the quota movement gained momentum and only then did many of them come to join it.
Their academic routine was not disturbed before nor were their preparations. There are always some examinees who may have their personal reasons for not getting the preparations needed even in an peaceful environment. But the majority try their best to get enough preparation for the public examinations. True, psychologically some of those who confronted the police violence and brutality are most likely to be traumatised. This may be enough reason for postponing the examinations for a little longer than the schedule for starting those from September 11 as announced earlier but cancellation is hardly a good proposition. Also, the exams for the remaining subjects were to be held on question papers bearing half the marks.
A comparative analysis between their situation and that of the 1971 batch of the HSC examinees can be illuminating. The 1971 batch nearly completed their academic year. Only laboratory works for students of the science group were yet to be completed. Even an examination was forcibly held in the occupied Bangladesh and a small number of candidates mostly from families of anti-liberation views took part in it. After the independence, the examination was held in all the subjects with the question papers carrying half the marks.
For long nine months, the majority of students went through far more harrowing experiences, some joining the liberation war and becoming martyrs, others had their houses burnt down and still others fleeing from one place to another. Some of them also crossed the border to become refugees. Those candidates did not ask for auto pass but with three to four months' preparation completed their examinations. The candidates from the science group had to do the laboratory work in between. If the losses of learning for nine months accompanied with trials and tribulations suffered were no bars to appearing for examinations for those candidates of the older generation, why should this month-long disruption be a valid cause for cancellation of the scheduled examinations?
Avoiding examinations at this stage may be an easy option for some but certainly not for all the examinees. It may also not be a general consensus of the 1.4 million HSC candidates. A few hundred students are certainly not the representatives of the larger section of candidates. Better it would be for the coordinators of the student movement to convince the examinees, who forced cancellation of examinations, that they stand to lose more than they gain in the long term if they avoid those exams. As a last resort, an online opinion poll can be arranged to see if the majority of the 1.4 million candidates are in favour of cancellation or not.
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