NATIONAL
HSC exams will go on, as Edu Ministry calls 'cancellation over problems in limited areas not practical'
Education Ministry says HSC exams will continue despite heavy rain and floods as students waded waist-deep to reach 2,697 centres for 1.27m candidates.
ARAFIN AHMED NEON
3:36
In a Nutshell:
- A total of 1.27 million candidates are sitting exams at 2,697 centres nationwide, and the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee said suspending exams nationally would delay result publication and disrupt university admissions across the country.
- On Monday, students across multiple boards faced heavy rain, waterlogged roads, severe traffic congestion, and dangerous travel conditions to reach their centres, with scenes from Dhaka, Cumilla, and other districts spreading widely across social media.
- The committee said local authorities may take necessary decisions if natural disasters create serious safety risks in specific areas, but stopped short of specifying what threshold would trigger that action.
Why it Matters
Monday's conditions were not confined to one board or one region. Students across the entire country faced the same dangerous reality on the same morning, and the committee's position offers none of them a clear answer on what would actually trigger a postponement in their area.
- In Cumilla, 107 millimetres of rainfall fell in just 3 hours on Monday morning, submerging major roads up to waist level, with boats arranged inside the Government Women's College centre to help students enter, centre authorities instructed to allow late arrivals, and rickshaw fares spiking as drivers took advantage of the conditions.
- Students under the Dhaka board and boards across other divisions also faced severe rain and gridlocked roads, with photos and videos of students wading through floodwater on their way to exam centres spreading across social media from multiple locations simultaneously.
- Arriving in wet clothes, exposure to waterlogged environments, and the physical and mental stress of the journey can impair concentration during exams.
What We Think
The committee is protecting the admissions calendar for 1.27 million students, and that concern is real. But Monday showed that the conditions it is willing to tolerate in the name of continuity are ones that no student should be expected to navigate to sit a public exam.
- Students arrived soaking wet across the country, some fell on waterlogged roads, and others crossed waist-deep water before entering examination halls, with families watching their children leave for exams in conditions they openly described as unsafe. None of this was treated as grounds for action.
- The committee said local authorities may act if safety is threatened. But boats inside exam centres, students slipping on submerged roads, and a doctor warning of snakebite risk on the way to exams are not abstract concerns. They are documented events from a single exam morning across multiple districts, and the response was to instruct centres to be sympathetic about late arrivals.
- Parents and teachers across boards have openly said the schedule does not account for the monsoon season or the country's ground realities. That is not a fringe complaint from one region. It is a nationwide question about whether Bangladesh's exam calendar is designed for Bangladesh's climate, and Monday made it impossible to treat as a local issue.