Staff Reporter :
The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations 2019 began on Saturday in 3,479 centres across the country.
A total of 2,135,333 students are sitting for the examination. Of them 1,064,892 are girls and 1,070,441 are boys.
Of them, 10,387 students were absent and 24 were expelled on the first day.
The students took examinations for Bangla 1st paper, Easy Bangla 1st paper, Bangla Language and Bangladesh Culture 1st paper and Quran Majid and Tajbid.
The highest 3,788 students were absent under Madrassah Education Board.
Thirteen students under technical board, six under madrassah, three under Barishal and one each under Dhaka and Dinajpur Boards were expelled.
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni visited the Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Government Secondary School center in the capital’s Ashkona area in the morning.
Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Sohrab Hossain and Secretary of Technical and Madrasa Education Division Md Alamgir were also present during the Minister’s visit to the centre.
The Minister warned of stern action against any evil attempt to leak question papers of SSC and equivalent examinations.
“We all want the examination to be held in an atmosphere free from question paper leak and forgery. I call upon everyone to work for holding the examinations in free and fair manner,” Dipu Moni said.
Meanwhile, examinees at four SSC examination centres in Chattogram were given question paper sets according to a different syllabus due to ‘the errors of centre officials’ on the first day of examinations.
Board officials say the errors were reported from four centres under the supervision of the Chattogram Education Board.
The SSC examinations began all across the country on Saturday with the Bangla First Paper.
The four examination centres where the error occurred were the Dr Khastagir Government Girls’ High School and Municipal Model High School centres in the Port City and the Pekua Girls’ High School and the Ukhiya Girls’ High School in Cox’s Bazar. The Education Board was unable to say as to how many students had been affected by the error.
Chattogram Education Board Examination Controller Mahbub Hassan said that this year’s Bangla examinations could be held under syllabi from 2016, 2018 or 2019.
“In four centres, due to the errors of the centre secretaries, students who were to sit for the 2019 syllabus were given question papers with questions set according to the 2018 syllabus.”
“So far we have learned that this has happened in four centres. But we do not yet know how many students were affected. Additional details will be released later.”
“We will of course take the necessary measures to ensure that the examinees are not harmed in anyway,” he said.
An agitated father of an examinee who gave their examination at the Municipal Model High School centre demanded assurance.
“It is unacceptable that this error has been made by the management of this country’s largest public examination. Who will be held responsible if this affects the results of the students?”
Error question papers were given at a examination center in Munshiganj district.
The aggrieved students also agitated in front of the Deputy Commissioner of Munshiganj’s residence.
On the other hand, the question papers were found on the facebook just half an hour of begging the examinations.
The facebook page named ‘SSC all board question out 2019-v100%’published the questions which have been found similarities with the delivered question papers.
Inter-Board Coordination Sub-Committee Chairman Professor M Ziaul Haque said, “We have learnt the matter of posting the question papers on facebook. It might be happened after an hour of starting the examination.”
“We are looking into the matter strictly. We will take stern action to stop such propaganda on social media,” he said.
