Some 7000 students were absent on the first day of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations on Monday.
Besides, seven examinees were expelled for copying while an invigilator was expelled for negligence of duty.
The examinations began simultaneously across the country and in some overseas centres under eight general education boards, Madrasah Education Board and Bangladesh Technical Education Board with Bengali 1st paper.
A total of 1,499,955 students sat for the examinations in 3,214 centres on the first day.
Of them, 1,182,800 appeared for the SSC exam under eight general education boards while 233,092 for Dakhil under Madrasah Education Board and 86,660 for SSC (vocational) under Bangladesh Technical Education Board.
Meanwhile, 404 students are appearing in the examinations in eight centres abroad-Jeddah, Riyadh, Tripoli, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Saham.
Besides, seven students with special needs are appearing for the examinations. They will get a 30-minute extra time while the handicapped students 20 minutes.
The written examinations will end on March 8 while the practical test will be held from March 9 to March 14.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid visited the SSC examination centre at Tejgaon Government Girls’ High School in the city.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister asked parents not to give any attention to rumours of question paper leaks in Facebook and other social media platforms, saying now it is quite impossible to leak questions of SSC examinations using any online platforms.
“If anyone tries to leak question papers through Facebook and other social media, the BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission) will take proper action,” he said.
Nahid also noted that the results would be published within 60 days of the completion of the exams.
