All educational boards have decided to propose a new approach based on subject mapping to publish this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination results.
The decision was taken from a meeting of exam controllers held on Wednesday, attended by chairpersons from all educational boards.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the proposed system will evaluate HSC and equivalent examination results by considering both the marks obtained in these examinations and the results from previous SSC, JSC, and PECE exams.
Examination controllers and system analysts from all boards have been asked to submit detailed proposals on how this subject mapping method can be implemented effectively.
Once these proposals are reviewed, they will be forwarded to the Ministry of Education for final approval.
The result preparation process will commence post-approval.
Prof Tapan Kumar Sarkar, president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and chairman of the Dhaka Board, discussed the rationale behind the subject mapping approach with Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.
He suggested that subject mapping could effectively incorporate practical marks for subjects that have been examined, even if practical examinations were not conducted.
However, this approach is not entirely new.
The HSC results for 2020 were determined using subject mapping, and in 2021, the method was applied to three subjects, with mapping used for the remaining subjects.
Prof Tapan emphasized that the experience from these past instances will guide the current proposal. "We have successful precedents to draw from."
"All examiners are encouraged to provide their recommendations based on these experiences. We aim to prepare and submit a comprehensive proposal soon," he said.
Examinees divided
A portion of the examinees expressed reluctance to sit for the remaining exams.
During a protest at the Ministry of Education’s on Tuesday, students voiced their concerns to Dhaka Tribune.
They argued that they had already completed exams for four out of seven subjects and should be evaluated based on those results, with the remaining subjects' marks combined with their previous public exam achievements to determine their final grades.
The protesting students have called for “subject mapping” or an equivalent alternative, rejecting the idea of an “auto pass” assessment.
They believe that their previous exam results should be sufficient for a fair evaluation.
Meanwhile, another group of students expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision to cancel the examinations. They said want to sit for the remaining examinations.