M M Jasim :The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations began on Wednesday. The first day’s examinations, held in the country’s 2419 centers, were peaceful. A total of 1,073,884 candidates appeared in the examinations from 8,305 educational institutions under 10 boards. Of them, 570,993 are males and 502,891 females. At least 26 students and four teachers were expelled for their dishonesty during the examinations. Of them, 10 students were expelled from Technical Board, seven from Madrasah, three from Barisal and one each from Rajshahi, Comilla, Jessore, Chittagong, Sylhet and Dinajpur. Two teachers were expelled from Barisal Board and two teachers from Madrasah Board. Meanwhile, 10,196 candidates were found absent on the first day of examinations throughout the country. Of them, 911 were in Dhaka Board, 934 in Comilla, Jessore 74, Rajshahi 130, Chittagong 776, Sylhet 477, Barisal 393, Dinajpur 886, Mardasah 476 and 179 in Technical Board. Apart from it, some 241 students sat for the examinations from seven overseas centres.Besides, a total of 8, 86,933 students took part the examinations from eight general education boards while 84,360 from madrasah board, 98,247 from vocational and 4,344 from DIBS.The written examinations will end on June 11 and the practical examinations are scheduled to begin on June 13 and end by June 22.Minister Nurul Islam Nahid visited the examination center at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College. “The HSC and equivalent examinations started today (Wednesday) and will continue for the next two months. I am seeking help from people of all walks of life in holding the examinations in free and peaceful way, the minister said.The minister hoped that the students would sit for the examinations without any anxiety and also asked the law enforcement agencies to ensure complete security for the examinees.Additional secretary to the ministry Swapan Kumar Sarkar, Chairman of Dhaka Education Board Professor Abu Bakar Siddik accompanied the minister.The first day of the examinations started at 10am with Bangla first paper.
