HSC exam controversy: When policy missteps meet a culture of pressure politics

On 13 July, students in Dhaka, Cumilla and several other districts waded to their examination centres through knee- to waist-deep water, admit cards held above their heads, calculators and notebooks shielded from the rain.

Some arrived soaked. Others arrived late. Many reached the halls exhausted before they had written a word.

The public outrage that followed was hardly surprising.

Rather than acknowledge the hardship or postpone the day's examinations, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon offered remarks widely read as dismissive. The backlash forced him to apologise in Parliament. 

The government later said it would consider retaking the examinations held under the worst conditions and would award full marks for errors in the physics question paper.

"Since students were being asked to sit for examinations in the midst of a natural disaster, the authorities should have taken responsibility from the outset and made an appropriate decision. When they failed to do so, the proper response was not to make dismissive remarks about students, but to acknowledge that they should have acted earlier and express regret for the delay."

Anu Mohammad, Economist and Political Activist

But by then, the damage was done.

What began as a dispute over examination management became a national protest. Demonstrators demanded the minister's resignation, the suspension of the ongoing HSC examinations and fresh examinations for every candidate. 

They blocked major roads in Dhaka and several districts, bringing traffic to a standstill and, in places, clashing with police. Buses were vandalised in the capital. In Chattogram, part of the Education Board gate was broken off and carried away. Some protesters complained that the question papers had simply been too difficult.

This is not only a story of administrative failure. It is what happens when mismanaged governance meets an entrenched politics of public pressure, and each makes the other worse.

The government failed its first test

The authorities underestimated the weather.

The ministry has argued that it based its decision on forecasts and reports from district administrations, which indicated conditions would improve. Officials also point out that district administrations had the authority to postpone examinations locally where circumstances demanded it.

Neither explanation addresses what students actually experienced.

Professor Mohammad Kaykobad, academic, educator and author, argues that the authorities confused the ability to reach an examination centre with the ability to sit an examination under fair conditions.

"Just because the roads have been cleared of water after some delay does not mean the students were able to sit for the examination under suitable conditions. Reaching the examination centre somehow, against all odds, is not the same as being in a proper state to take an exam. That, in itself, is highly undesirable," he said.

The failure was one of empathy before it was one of logistics.

Professor Anu Muhammad, economist and political activist, pinpoints the government's principal failure to the way it communicated that decision.

"Since students were being asked to sit for examinations in the midst of a natural disaster, the authorities should have taken responsibility from the outset and made an appropriate decision. When they failed to do so, the proper response was not to make dismissive remarks about the students but rather to acknowledge that they should have acted earlier and express regret for the delay," he said.

"There is a distinction to be made. When students make unreasonable demands, the authorities should not simply give in. There will always be students who would rather avoid an examination because they have not studied. We should not surrender to such demands. However, this was fundamentally different. Even reaching the examination hall was extraordinarily difficult..."

Professor Mohammad Kaykobad, Academic, Educator and Author

The apology came eventually. It came after the government had defended the decision, and before it began considering fresh examinations — a sequence that reassured nobody and reinforced the impression of indecision. Throughout, the ministry reacted rather than governed.

Anisur Rahman, former principal of Government Sundarban Adarsha College, argues that the minister has narrowed his own job.

"The impression is that the education minister believes his primary responsibility is to eliminate cheating. While preventing cheating is important, an education system cannot be built solely around that objective. Improving the education system, expanding higher education and modernising curricula are equally important," he told TBS.

On the minister's remarks about students, Anisur Rahman is blunt. "A cabinet minister should avoid making such ill-considered public comments."

Here, Professor Kaykobad draws the distinction the week has lost.

"There is a distinction to be made. When students make unreasonable demands, the authorities should not simply give in. There will always be students who would rather avoid an examination because they have not studied. We should not surrender to such demands. However, this was fundamentally different. Here, even reaching the examination hall was extraordinarily difficult because of a natural disaster."

The rise of pressure politics

More troubling than the government's missteps is how quickly a legitimate grievance became a movement that relied on disruption to extract concessions.

Not everyone accepted that the grievance justified the response. Anisur Rahman, while recognising that some students faced real difficulty, questions the scale of what followed.

"The flooding did not affect the entire country. Perhaps one or two examination centres experienced particularly difficult conditions, and those incidents received extensive negative coverage on social media. That appears to have prompted students to take to the streets. I do not believe the scale of the protests was justified."

Md Abdul Bari, acting principal of Bhawal Mirzapur University College, makes the narrower point about the papers themselves. "Whether the questions are easy or difficult, they are the same for all candidates across the country. The purpose of an examination is to assess merit fairly."

For historian and political analyst Altaf Parvez, the episode exposes an institutional problem far larger than the HSC.

He argues that Bangladesh has blurred the line between political accountability and administrative responsibility. Examination schedules, question papers, and academic standards are matters for the education boards. Public anger goes to the minister regardless.

"Setting examination questions is the responsibility of the education boards, not the education minister. The Dhaka Education Board prepares the question papers, yet whenever there is controversy over an examination, the blame is directed at the minister, and people demand action from the minister. This is because the institutional reforms that were expected after 2024 never materialised," Parvez said.

"Setting examination questions is the responsibility of the education boards, not the education minister. The Dhaka Education Board prepares the question papers, yet whenever there is controversy over an examination, the blame is directed at the minister, and people demand action from the minister. This is because the institutional reforms expected after 2024 never materialised."

Altaf Parvez, Historian and Political Analyst

That instinct is the symptom of a highly centralised administrative culture in which institutional responsibility has been personalised. Where institutions cannot be held to account, individuals are. And the fastest instrument available is the street.

Which is where the precedent comes in. In 2024, a group of students blocked the secretariat and forced the cancellation of that year's HSC examinations. Professor Kaykobad, Altaf Parvez, and Anu Muhammad all trace the present crisis to that moment.

"This set the dangerous precedent for what we are witnessing today," says Altaf Parvez. "In 2024, a single protest march effectively secured the cancellation of HSC for an entire generation of students. That set a powerful precedent. It reinforced the belief that if people block roads, occupy government buildings, or create sufficient pressure, they can force the authorities to concede."

He is unsparing about where the fault lies. "In my view, this situation is the product of our political culture. It is the result of populist politics — of politicians seeking popularity by making concessions rather than strengthening institutions."

Kaykobad measures the cost to those who are not on the street. "We have, unfortunately, been sending the wrong message. We introduced automatic promotion in the past. Whenever a relatively small group has surrounded us or applied pressure, we have often conceded to their demands without considering the interests of the far larger number of students who remained silent."

Anu Muhammad accepts that students bear some responsibility but sees them as the product of an environment that has normalised confrontation.

"There is certainly an element of that. A culture of mob violence has developed among a section of students, where disorder and intimidation are used to extract concessions. However, the greater responsibility lies not with the students themselves but with those who influence, organise or fail to provide them with responsible leadership," he added.

Rebuilding confidence, therefore, requires more than correcting question papers or postponing examinations. It requires restoring the relationship between students, teachers, and institutions.

Ultimately, this week's events should serve as a reminder that stronger institutions, healthier student-teacher relationships, and a culture of dialogue remain the only sustainable foundations for an education system worthy of its students.

TBS Gazipur district correspondent M Asaduzzaman Saad and Khulna correspondent Awal Sheikh contributed to the report.