The government has decided not to hold Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations on hartal days and postponed the first exam scheduled for today.
The Bangla paper I exam has been now scheduled at 9am on Friday.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday announced the decisions made at an emergency meeting at the secretariat.
Today is the second day of the ongoing 72-hour nationwide general strike enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
Nahid said: “We cannot put our children at risk as life always comes first. We have to ensure their safety as we cannot avoid our responsibility. So, we cannot take exams in such situation.
“We thought they [the BNP-led alliance] would withdraw the strike considering the SSC exams. We requested them several times for this. But they did not listen to us.”
The minister said: “Many of our teachers and students died during the blockade violence. We cannot let this happen twice.”
He urged the BNP to keep SSC exams out of hartal’s purview considering the future of the students.
Nahid thanked guardians of the examinees for their movement demanding the withdrawal of hartal during the SSC exams.
