Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Haque Milon has assured that Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinees would receive full marks for the erroneous questions on Physics and that reexaminations could be held at affected centres.
The minister explained in parliament on Tuesday what had gone wrong in arranging exams amid torrential rain and rain-fed flooding, as protests spread outside.
He also urged demonstrating students to leave the streets and return to their studies, assuring them that the government would ensure no candidate is deprived of a fair examination.
The explanation and assurances comes in response to two separate supplementary questions during the question-and-answer session in parliament, amid student demonstrations in Dhaka and several other parts of the country over the government decision to hold Monday's HSC examinations despite severe monsoon weather.
Explaining the decision, the minister says it had been taken after consultations with relevant authorities, who had advised that weather conditions were expected to remain favourable.
He acknowledges that questions 6 and 7 of the Physics First Paper contained errors and announced that all examinees will be awarded full credit for both the botched questions.
"I would request the students to return to their study tables. We are even more concerned than they are about ensuring the examinations are conducted properly and about dealing with the ongoing disaster. We assure them that if irregularities have occurred at any examination centre, there is provision for holding reexaminations," says the minister.
The HSC and equivalent examinations are currently being held across the country during the monsoon season. While examinations scheduled for July 13, 15 and 16 under the Chattogram Education Board have been postponed because of flooding, examinations under all other education boards continued as scheduled.
Heavy rainfall on Monday caused severe difficulties for many examinees. Physics First Paper for the science group, Logic First Paper for the humanities group, and Accounting First Paper for the business studies group were held that day. Students later reported errors in two questions of the Physics paper.
The examinations amid adverse weather triggered widespread criticism from students and parents. On Tuesday morning, students staged demonstrations in Dhaka and several districts, with some protesters also demanding resignation of the education minister.
Responding to a supplementary question from Jamaat-e-Islami MP Shafiqul Islam Masud, the minister said the government remained concerned about holding examinations during the monsoon and had authorised local administrations to relocate examination centres immediately if floodwaters entered the premises.
Referring to the widely discussed incident at Cumilla Government Women's College, where students were transported to the examination centre by boat, he says it was the only major case requiring such extraordinary arrangements.
"At other locations where water entered the premises, the situation was not as severe. A small number of centres were relocated immediately, and all necessary facilities were provided to the examinees."
The minister said the government has been monitoring the situation continuously and would review cases where candidates may have been adversely affected.
"If we find that students suffered because of administrative shortcomings, such as examination centres becoming inundated and candidates being unable to sit for the examination, we have reserve question sets and can arrange reexaminations, if necessary. We have already taken similar measures for Chattogram Education Board, and that option remains available," he told the lawmakers.
Independent MP Rumin Farhana questioned why the government had ignored students' appeals to postpone the examinations, noting that Dhaka, Chattogram and several other cities had been submerged after days of heavy rain.
She wanted to know why such an important examination as the HSC could not have been delayed by even one or two days.
In response, the minister says nearly 2,700 examination centres across all 64 districts were conducting the examinations simultaneously. Following flooding in Chattogram, examinations were first suspended in Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari before being postponed across entire Chattogram Education Board.
He said the government had consulted superintendents of police in all 64 districts, the eight divisional commissioners, chairpersons of every education board and the Bangladesh Meteorological Department before making its decision.
"They informed us that there would be no further rainfall. We monitored the situation until 5:00 pm before making the decision. Since all concerned authorities assured us that the weather would remain favourable, we decided to proceed with the examinations."
However, after seeing the heavy rain on Monday morning, the minister immediately instructed the mayor, Fire Service, police and the deputy commissioner in Cumilla to relocate the examination arrangements.
"The students were transported by boat to the fifth floor of the building, where the examination was held," he says.
The minister adds that district administrations elsewhere reported no major weather-related disruptions.
He explains that the girl whose clothes had become soaked at the Cumilla centre was provided with fresh clothes from her home, allowed to begin the examination one hour later and given additional time to complete it.
According to the minister, deputy commissioners, upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs) and police officials have the authority to decide immediately whether examinations can be held safely at any centre and may suspend examinations, if necessary. The decision to continue Monday's examinations was taken after consultations with local authorities.
Addressing the faulty Physics paper, Milon reiterates that questions 6 and 7 contained errors and confirmed that all candidates would receive full marks for those questions.
He explained that the current government had assumed office only four months ago, while the question-moderation process had begun nearly two years before the examinations.
"The question papers were prepared by moderators appointed during the previous government's tenure. Nevertheless, we immediately announced that questions 6 and 7 of the Physics paper contained errors and that full marks would be awarded for both questions," he said.
In reply to a separate question from Jessore-4 MP Golam Rasul, the minister said Bangladesh has approximately 25,000 Qawmi madrasas with around seven million students.
He also informed parliament that the country has 65,569 primary schools with 9.96 million students, 32,663 kindergartens with 6.09 million students, 9,295 attached Ebtedayee madrasas with around 1.5 million students, and 7,528 independent Ebtedayee madrasas enrolling about one million students.
While responding to a starred question from ruling-party lawmaker Lutfor Rahman (Cox'sbazar-3), the education minister said the government is planning to hold the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations in January and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations in June from the 2027 academic year.
The minister said the government has undertaken an initiative to reorganise the schedule of public examinations in line with international standards and to make the academic calendar more time-efficient.
According to the minister, the move is intended to gradually align the beginning of the academic year with the public examination schedule, reduce the loss of instructional time, and eventually complete public examinations even earlier in the academic year.
Education Minister Dr. A N M Ehsanul Haque Milon on Tuesday expressed regret over the controversy surrounding a recent personal remark about students, saying he had no intention of hurting anyone.
Speaking in parliament, the minister sought to clarify his position following widespread criticism on social media and in political circles over comments attributed to him.
"I want to address the objections many people have raised regarding my personal remark. I did not say anything with the intention of targeting or hurting anyone. If anyone has been offended or felt hurt, I simply express my regret," he told lawmakers.
The minister stressed that his comments were personal in nature and were not intended to demean any individual or group.
The controversy erupted after an alleged phone conversation, which began circulating on social media late Monday, appeared to show the education minister referring to today's students as "farm chickens." The remark triggered widespread outrage, with students across Dhaka and other parts of the country staging demonstrations throughout Tuesday demanding his resignation.
According to bdnews24.com, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon has announced that three Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations will be retaken for students who were unable to sit the tests properly due to continuous rain and flooding.
The announcement came in parliament on Tuesday as students continued protests in Dhaka and other areas demanding the minister's resignation over the government's decision not to postpone the HSC and equivalent examinations despite severe weather across parts of the country.
The minister said the Physics First Paper, Accounting and Logic examinations would be held again for affected candidates.
According to Milon, the retake examinations will be conducted when the postponed examinations for districts under the Chattogram Education Board are rescheduled following the flood disruption.
He said those postponed examinations would be held with new question papers, and students across the country who were affected by heavy rain and flooding would be allowed to sit the same examinations.
The Chattogram Education Board had earlier postponed examinations in districts affected by flooding after heavy rainfall inundated large areas and disrupted transport links.
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