Deferred SSC exams on short syllabus begin Sunday

The deferred Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations for the 2020-21 academic session will begin on Sunday.

The duration of each examination will be one-and-a-half hours and the tests will be held in two shifts – 10 am-11:30 am and 2 pm-3:30 pm.

More than 22.27 lakh candidates have registered for SSC and equivalent exams this year.

Examinations under science, humanities, and commerce groups will not be held on the same day.

All coaching centres will remain closed from 8-25 November, said sources at the education ministry.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government deferred this year's SSC and equivalent examinations, which were usually held in February.

The examinations will be held this year on three elective subjects of each group with a reduced syllabus.

Mandatory subjects will not be assessed as they were evaluated in the past the Junior School Certificate (JSC), Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) and equivalent examinations, while no exam will take place on the fourth or optional elective subject.

The results of mandatory and optional subjects will be given based on subject mapping like last year, using aggregates from previous JSC, JDC examination results.

There is, however, no opportunity to change or amend the fourth subject in the student registration card.

According to education boards, SSC examinees from the science group will sit for 32-mark examinations, while it will be 45 marks for commerce and humanities students.

Examinees under the science group will have to answer two essay questions out of eight. The total mark for each answer is 10. They will also have to answer 12 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) out of 25, with each having a mark of one.

For the commerce and humanities group, examinees will have to answer two essay questions out of 11 and each question's total mark is 10. They will also have to answer 15 MCQ questions out of 30, with each having marks of one. 

According to the routine, the SSC tests will begin with the physics (theory) examination on the morning of 14 November.

On 15 November, the history of Bangladesh and the world civilisation exam will be held in the morning while the accounting exam is scheduled for the afternoon.

On November 16, the morning shift will hold the chemistry (theory) exam, while physical education and sports (theory) will take place on November 18 morning, geography and environment on 21 November morning and finance and banking on 21 November afternoon shift.

The SSC theoretical examinations will end on 23 November.  

Bangladesh reopened schools and colleges on 12 September this year after nearly 1.5 years of closure due to the coronavirus.