<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Education Minister Dr Dipu moni has announced that this year’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and its equivalent examinations will begin at 11am instead of 10am.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She made the announcement at a press briefing at her office on Monday (September 5).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dipu Moni said, “The SSC and its equivalent examinations will begin at 11am and continue till 1pm. Exams will continue for two hours. Candidates will have to enter exam centres 30 minutes before the examinations start.”</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">This year, the examinations will be held for two hours instead of three hours, she said adding the duration of the MCQ exam is 20 minutes while that of the written exam is 1 hour and 40 minutes.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">All examinees have been asked to enter their exam halls 30 minutes before the starting time and no one except the exam secretary will be allowed to carry cellular phone.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Mentionable, the SSC and its equivalent examinations are scheduled to begin on September 15.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Some 20,21,868 students are expected to take the SSC and equivalent exams this year while last year this number was 22,43,254. The number of candidates has decreased by 2,21,386.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">About 15,99,711 candidates will sit for the SSC exam under nine general education boards, 2,68,495 for Dakhil exams under Madrasa Education Board and 1,53,662 for vocational exam under Bangladesh Technical Education Board this year, the minister said.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The SSC and its equivalent examinations under all the education boards scheduled to begin on June 19 were postponed due to the flood situation in the country on June 17.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Earlier, it was deferred for about four months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Usually, the SSC exams take place in February.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">According to the schedule, the SSC and its equivalent examinations will end on October 18.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>