The Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations began on Tuesday across the country with total 25,408 examinees being absent.
Six candidates were also expelled on the first day of the examinations.
One invigilator was also expelled on the day.
Education minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon on the day said that the overall situation during the exams was satisfactory.
No untoward incident occurred anywhere, he said, adding that there was no fear of question paper leak this time.
On the first day, examinations, starting at 10:00am, were held on Bangla (compulsory) first paper and Easy Bangla first paper subjects under the nine general boards, Quran Majid and Tazvid subject under the madrassah education board, and Bangla (2) subject under the technical education board.
Across nine general boards 11,890 examinees (1.05 per cent) were absent out of 11,34,853 candidates on the first day, while under Bangladesh Madrassah Board 11,211 examinees (4.4 per cent) were absent out of total 2,54,903 candidates.
Under Bangladesh Technical Education Board 2,307 examinees (1.93 per cent) out of total 1,19,250 candidates were absent on the first day of the examinations.
In the capital the candidates, accompanied by guardians, were seen rushing to the exam centres in the morning.
As usual, many guardians were seen waiting in the adjacent areas of the exam centres during the exams.
This year the examinees in Dhaka metropolitan areas are being allowed to enter the exam centres from 8:00am to avoid traffic congestion, as the examination authorities have responded to a request from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Usually, exam centres open to the examinees from 9:00am, an hour before the exam starts at 10:00am, and allow students to enter the exam hall till 9:30am.
On the day, the education minister visited five exam centres in Dhaka and Manikganj districts—Tetuljhora High School at Savar upazila of Dhaka, Mirpur Mofid-E-Am School and College at Aminbazar union under Savar, Model Academy at Paikpara in Dhaka city, Joymontop High School and Shahorail High School at Singair upazila in Manikganj.
After the visits, at a press briefing held at the International Mother Language Institute in the capital he told journalists that he went to some risky exam centres where he found only one incident in which a student was seeing the answer paper of another at Joymontop High School.
The minister said that he had alerted the invigilator and the executive magistrate concerned, adding that environment in four other centres was satisfactory.
An invigilator under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board was expelled on the day, according to the information provided by the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee under the education ministry.
Ehsanul Hoque also remarked that the trend of SSC candidates to decrease in number began during the Covid-19 pandemic, but later it became stable again to start decreasing since last year.
The number of examinees saw a decrease in number in 2025 that continued in the current year too, he said, expressing hope that the number of candidates would not reduce in future.
This year, around 18.57 lakh examinees from 30,666 educational institutions are scheduled to sit for the exams at 3,885 centres. In 2025 around 19.28 lakh candidates took the examinations.
The exams are going to be held in a situation when the country is dealing with load shedding amid scorching summer heat, making everyday life increasingly tough.
This is the first public examination under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government in its current tenure.
