The government has brought forward the schedules of both Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations from next year.

Education minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon on Thursday announced that the 2027 SSC, HSC and equivalent examinations will begin on January 7 and June 6 next year, respectively.

At the urgent press conference, he also said that the SSC and HSC examinations will conclude on February 6 and July 13 next year, respectively.

The press conference was held at the conference room of the Secondary and Higher Education Division in the Bangladesh Secretariat in the capital on Thursday.

‘We aim to synchronise the schedules of these two exams to close the gaps where students waste nearly a year waiting for both SSC and HSC exams,’ he said, adding, ‘we have targeted December as the ideal month for completing both exams to ensure the students can transition immediately into further admissions.’

He further said that after two years these public examinations would be completed by December each year and results would be published within two months, allowing students to enrol in HSC and graduation on time.

Earlier on Wednesday, a consultation session regarding two public examinations was held in the presence of  education minister, all board chairmen, renowned college professors, school principals, guardians and students from all over Bangladesh.

Before the minister’s announcement, the division secretary Abdul Khaleque said that after consulting stakeholders for several days and reaching a consensus with students, they reached a unanimous agreement on the exam timing on Wednesday.

Ehsanul Hoque said that there are approximately two million SSC-equivalent students and another two million HSC-equivalent students.

He continued that under normal circumstances, student are 16 years old when they pass the SSC and 18 when they pass the HSC exams, while they have observed that students are now reaching 20 years of age by the time they pass the HSC.

‘In terms of the demographic dividend, this means the nation loses four million years of potential productivity,’ the minister said.

Regarding the HSC exams, he said that they are targeting the Fall semester for publishing HSC results.

Replying to a question on coaching centres, he said that he does not recognise them as they are not registered.

‘Can you directly order coaching centres to close? Is that under my jurisdiction?’ he asked, adding that these centres would not be necessary if we improved classroom education and provided in-house coaching.

The theoretical examinations will be held between January 7 and February 6 and the practical exams will be completed by February 11, June 7 and June 14, according to the schedule of SSC exams.

The examinations will start from 10:00am.

According to the schedule of HSC exams, the theoretical examinations will be held between June 6 and July 13 and the practical ones will be completed by July 18.

The examinations will start from 2:00pm.

This year, the SSC and its equivalent examinations started in April and the HSC and its equivalent exams are scheduled to start in July.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the SSC and its equivalent exams were held in February, the HSC and its equivalent exams were held in April. After the pandemic the schedules started to procrastinate.

Earlier this year, the education minister on March 25 said that they are considering holding the SSC, HSC and equivalent examinations by December 31 every year to save time in the students’ academic lives.

Currently, students appear in both SSC and HSC exams the year following the completion of all classes and courses in the previous year.