The Higher Secondary Certificate and its equivalent examinations began on Thursday morning, maintaining health protocols.
The examinations are being held in two shifts while the duration of each exam has been reduced to one hour and a half.
In the first shift, the exam started at 10:00am while the second shift exam will begin at 2:00pm.
As many as 13,99,690 students are expected to take the examinations this year while the number was 13,65,789 last year.
The examinations are being held with shortened syllabuses on three elective subjects on a group basis.
The government held the major public exam this year after a delay of more than nine months due to the Covid-19 pandemic while the examination is held in April generally.
Last year, the exam could not be held while the examinees were evaluated on the basis of their results of JSC and SSC exams.
This year, about 11,38,017 candidates will sit for the HSC exams under nine general education boards, 1,13,144 for Alim exams under Madrasa Education Board, and 1,48,503 for vocational exams under Bangladesh Technical Education Board.
The exams will be held at 2,621 centres across the country.
Besides, 406 students will take part in the examinations from abroad.
Earlier, the SSC and equivalent examinations began on November 14 and ended on November 23. The HSC exams will conclude on December 30.
Besides, as per the government order, all coaching centres across the country will remain shut until January 3 from November 25.
Since March 2020, educational institutions across the country had remained closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure was extended several times.
With the improvement in the Covid situation, the government finally reopened educational institutions on September 12 this year.
