SSC, equivalent exams begin...............

The Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations started at 10 am around the country Sunday under eight education boards along with madrasa and technical boards.

Prof Mohammad Shamsul Huq, new chairman of the Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education, Dhaka, said: "The biggest public exams of the country started at 10 am peacefully with an English paper."

Some 10.63 lakh students—5.58 lakh boys and 5.05 lakh girls—from 26,239 schools are taking part in the SSC exams.

This year's secondary school certificate and equivalent exams are seeing around 50,000 more candidates than the previous year, though the dropout rate remains high at around 42 percent.

Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid stated earlier in the week that the exams this year would be "free of cheating and all attempts at dishonesty will be curbed with due strictness."

He said the results would be out on May 25.

Education secretary Syed Ataur Rahman has said the education and energy ministries have been working together to ensure uninterrupted power supply during exam hours.

Of the total 10.63 lakh exam candidates, 7.33 lakh are regular candidates and 3.3 lakh irregular.

Of these, just over 8 lakh candidates will sit for the exams under the eight general boards.

Some 2.4 lakh students are sitting from Dhaka board, 1.14 lakh under Rajshahi board, 88,523 under Comilla board, 1.07 lakh under Jessore board, 62,037 from Chittagong board, 37,544 under Sylhetboard, 48,808 under Barisal board and 1.02 lakh under Dinajpur board, according to the education ministry.

This is the first time SSC exams are being held under the Dinajpur board.

Some 1.86 lakh students are sitting the Dakhil exams under the Madrasa Board and 75,057 are taking the SSC Vocational exams under the Technical Board.

Another 254 students are sitting the exams from seven overseas centres.

Massive dropout

Another massive dropout rate of 42 percent is seen countrywide this year ahead of the exams, with the Sylhet Board suffering the highest dropout rate of 57.25 percent.

"There is no doubt that many students are still dropping out because of social and economic factors," said Mohammad Shamsul Huq.

The dropout rate has fallen this year, however; last year the countrywide dropout rate was 48.15 percent.

Over 12.67 lakh regular students registered for the secondary school certificate and equivalent exams out of eight education boards, one madrasa and one technical board across the country, but 5.34 lakh students have failed to submit entry forms for the exams.

The dropout rate is 46.98 percent for girls and 37.11 percent for boys this year.

Prof Huq held early marriages responsible for female dropouts, and economic pressures for male dropouts.

"Many girls are married off in our country before SSC exams, and are unable to pursue their studies," he told us .
"In the case of boys, it is seen that many guardians give them education to some extent but then engage them to earn money. In that case they lose interest in education or they no longer have the time or opportunity to study," said Huq.

Rajshahi board has the lowest dropout rate at 32.76 percent. Dhaka board suffers a 44.19 percent dropout rate, Comilla board 50.79 percent, Jessore 43.01 percent, Chittagong 45.35 percent, Barisal 43.11 percent and Dinajpur 33.15 percent.

The Madrasa Board (Dakhil) sees a 33.62 percent dropout rate, and the Technical Board (SSC Vocational) 54.32 percent.