Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent exams started under Sylhet Education Board on Tuesday amid floods.
The exams started at 10am.
Earlier, the candidates reached their respective centres between 9am and 9:30am.
However, many centres in Sylhet still have waterlogged premises, especially affecting students from rural areas.
Although the students and parents are worried about the ongoing floods situation, the college authorities have tried to facilitate the entrance by putting sand on the waterlogged road so that students can cross the area easily.
During a visit to South Government Degree College in flood-hit Sylhet, it was found that the road and courtyard are still submerged in floods water from the entrance of the college to the inside. Sandbags have been thrown on the road for students to enter.
Students entered the college walking on that sandbag.
Similarly, in many centres of the board, the candidates took part in the HSC examination braving the flood water.
Exam centres shifted
Meanwhile, the board authorities have shifted some centres due to floods.
Matiur Rahman, acting principal of Dakshin Surma Government College in Sylhet, said that although there is water at the entrance of the college, sandbags have been kept on the road for the convenience of the candidates. Some classrooms have water. However, there will be no examination in those rooms.
Besides, exam centre of Balaganj DN High School centre has been shifted to Balaganj Government College as the centre is still under water.
Journalist Abdul Hasib Tapadar of Jokiganj, which was the most affected by the flood, said that the examination of the candidates of two centres in Jokiganj Sadar was taken in one centre.
He said that Jokiganj Government College and Hafsa Majumdar Degree College were the designated centres for the examination. There were flood shelters in this two centre. Later, the flood-affected people who took shelter at Jokiganj Government College, were evacuated to Hafsa Majumdar Degree College and the students of two centres attended examinations at Jokiganj Govt College centre.
The students from the village had to suffer a lot to come to the centre.
Sylhet Education Board Controller of Examination Professor Arun Chandra Paul told reporters that there is no water around the centre as the flood situation has improved. Keeping this in mind, the HSC examination has started from Tuesday.
It is known that 82,795 candidates of 309 educational institutions of the entire division under the board have sat for the HSC examination. Among them, 33,590 are male students and 49,205 female students among the total candidates.
Under the board, there are 35,620 candidates in Sylhet district, 15,664 in Sunamganj, 16,508 in Moulvibazar and 15,003 candidates in Habiganj.
There are a total of 87 examination centres in four districts of the division. Among them 33 are in Sylhet, 22 in Sunamganj, 14 in Moulvibazar and 18 in Habiganj.
Water level still flowing over danger mark at some points
As of 9am on Tuesday, Surma river was still flowing above the danger at one point and Kushiara river at two points.
According to the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) of Sylhet, the water of the Surma river was flowing 28 cm above the water level at Kanighat point in Sylhet at 3pm. It was above 40cm at 6pm on Monday and and it was flowing over 48 cm at the same time at Amalshid Point in Jokiganj.
Sylhet has received 28 mm of rain till 6am on Tuesday.
According to Sylhet district administration's flood bulletin, 9,635 flood-affected people are still staying in 215 shelters in the district. The number of people affected by flood is 555,133 people.
On May 29, heavy rains and landslides from upstream caused floods in Sylhet.
After June 8, the flood situation became more normal.
The continuous rains that started last June 17 triggered the second round of floods in Sylhet.
In this, 13 upazilas including 24 wards of Sylhet city and 13 upazilas of Sunamganj were more or less flooded.
In this situation, the Inter-Education Board Coordinating Committee postponed the HSC, Madrasa and Technical Education Board examinations of Sylhet Division till July 8.
Finally, the delayed HSC exam started on Tuesday.