Govt cancels rest of HSC exams as students besiege Secretariat

The government on Tuesday cancelled the remaining Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations after a large number of examinees stormed the Secretariat in Dhaka to press home the demand.

Prof Tapan Kumar Sarkar, head of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and Dhaka Education Board chairman, made the announcement of cancellation to reporters after students had besieged his office at the Secretariat.

Students went to the Secretariat demanding postponement of the remaining HSC and equivalent exams and seeking auto pass based on the previous exams and Secondary School Certificate results.

Students gathered and demonstrated in front of the building where the Education Ministry's office is located inside the Secretariat. They also took position in front of the ministry's Secondary and Higher Education Division office.

The Ministry of Education announced cancellation of the postponed exams as all entrances of the Secretariat were blocked at one stage of demonstration by several hundred students.

HSC and equivalent examinations were postponed on several occasions during the Quota Reform Movement, which later turned into an Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. The exams were postponed for the first time on July 18.

Subsequently, it was decided that the HSC and equivalent exams would be conducted under a new schedule from August 11, which also was cancelled later.

After former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in the face of a student-civilian uprising, some schools and colleges, where the examinations were supposed to take place, have suffered damage.

The interim government that took over later decided to hold the postponed examinations from September 11, but a portion of the examinees were protesting saying that they were not in a position to sit for the examinations.

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