SSC, HSC for 2023: Exams to be held on all subjects

SSC, HSC and their equivalent exams for 2023 will be held on all subjects with full marks but on curtailed syllabuses, according to a government decision.

The education ministry yesterday decided that next year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams will be held in April and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams in June.

The decision to shorten the syllabuses was made considering the fact that the candidates of these public exams will have fewer in-person classes compared to the pre-Covid period.

Schools remained closed from March 17, 2020, to September 11, 2021, and from January 20 to February 21, this year because of Covid-19.

At a press conference at the Secretariat yesterday, Education Minister Dipu Moni said the SSC candidates for 2023 will have 162 days of in-person classes, given that those continue till December this year. They usually get 316 days of in-person classes.

If the classes for HSC candidates for next year continue till December this year, they will be able to attend in-person classes for 200 days against the usual 330 days.

The revised syllabuses for both the SSC and HSC exams will be prepared keeping in mind the fewer number of in-person classes during the pandemic.

Dipu Moni said classes for the SSC candidates will continue till February next year and for the HSC candidates till March.

The minister said they were yet to decide on this year's Junior School Certificate and its equivalent exams for class-VIII students.

The exams were not held for the last couple of years due to the pandemic.

The Covid-induced closure of schools is still having a big impact on public exams.

This year's SSC exams are likely to begin on June 19 and the HSC exams on August 22, three and a half months behind schedule. Those will be held on curtailed syllabuses and with fewer marks than usual.

This year, SSC candidates will have to sit for exams on Bangla, English, mathematics and a fourth subject apart from three optional subjects.

They will not need to sit for exams on religion, information communications technology, Bangladesh and global studies, and science, said Prof Tapan Kumar Sarkar, acting chairman of Dhaka Education Board.

He further said this year's HSC candidates will have to take exams on Bangla, English, the three optional subjects and a fourth subject. There will be no exams on ICT.

Last year, SSC and HSC candidates sat for tests on only three optional subjects with a shortened syllabus and fewer marks than usualdue to the pandemic.

HSC exams were not held in 2020 due to the pandemic. The students were evaluated based on their results in the previous public exams.