Nearly 19,000 Students Absent on First Day of SSC Exams in Pandemic

On the first day of the Secondary School Certificate, or SSC, exams — the first public assessments administered in schools since the coronavirus pandemic — nearly 19,000 students were absent.

On Sunday, the science stream's physics exam was held. When business studies and humanities students take their first tests on Monday, the number of absentees may rise.

This year, more than 2.2 million students have registered for SCC and comparable exams, with slightly more than 900,000 in the scientific stream.

The number of absent students at madrasas was above 10,000, the highest of all the boards.

Over 5,000 students did not show up on the first day, according to the Technical Education Board. The total number of students in the nine general education boards surpassed 3,500.

At the start of the epidemic last year, about 13,000 kids skipped the first day of class. On that day, about 2.4 million students from various disciplines sat the exams.

Due to the pandemic's setback, the SSC exams are being held this year with a modified syllabus of three choice topics.

There will be no tests for the required and fourth subjects, such as Bangla, English, and general math, which will be graded using subject mapping.

SSC and equivalent exams, which are usually held in February, have been postponed by nine months this year because of the epidemic. For nearly a year and a half, educational institutions have also remained closed.

Despite the fact that the number of coronavirus infections has decreased recently, the pandemic is still ongoing. As a result, the tests are being held under unusual circumstances this year.