Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday assured students that the junior school certificate (JSC) terminal examinations would be held as scheduled on November 1, despite the primary and mass education ministry proposal to hold it 10 days early. The education ministry had handed over all responsibilities up to Class VIII to the primary and mass education ministry in May this year to implement the National Education Policy 2010. Under the decision, the primary and mass education ministry looks after primary education activities across the country.
All necessary preparations to hold the JSC and equivalent examinations scheduled on November 1 were completed, when the primary and mass education ministry suddenly proposed to the education ministry to hold the examinations on October 20. “It is not possible for the primary and mass education ministry to hold the upcoming JSC exams. They have proposed that we handle the exams. We were also unprepared for their proposal to hold the exams just 10 days before the scheduled date. But we have taken care of the issue as it is our duty,” Nahid said on Sunday to journalists at a press conference at his office in the Secretariat.
The minister said students and guardians need not worry about the dates of the exams; they would be held as originally scheduled, starting from November 1, and be completed by November 17.
“The examinations will be held and the results published as planned, with the cooperation of the persons concerned,” he added. Replying to a query, he said: “There is no dearth of coordination between the two ministries. I don’t know why they failed to hold the exams. We could have helped them if they wanted. But there will be no problem as we have experience in this matter. We will complete all preparations within 10 days.”
The minister said they would later explain to the primary and mass education ministry about how the examinations should be held.
In response to another question, he said: “The primary and mass education ministry approached the Cabinet to get approval for holding two exams, primary education certificate (PEC) in class V and JSC in Class VIII, or one examination only at primary level in Class VIII. But the Cabinet said both the exams would continue at the primary level.”
Nahid also said that 2,410,015 examinees will sit for JSC and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations under the education board at 2,734 centres on November 1 this year. Of the examinees, 1,123,162 are male and 1,286,853 are female, i.e., there are 163,691 more female candidates than male candidates.
Under the eight general education boards, there are 2,035,543 examinees, of whom 947,933 are male and 1,087,610 are female.
Under the Madrasa Education Board, there are 374,472 examinees, of whom 175,219 are male and 199,243 female.