Legal notice served to reconsider government’s decision on HSC exam

A legal notice has been served to the government to withdraw, rescind or reconsider the decision of not holding Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination this year.

The notice also requested to evaluate the HSC results based on the results of the test examinations given by the students in their respective colleges instead of averaging their Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam results.

Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Shihab Uddin Khan sent the legal notice on Thursday on behalf of a HSC examinee-- Shatabdi Roy, a student of Mofazzal Momena Chakladar Mohila College in Savar of Dhaka.

The legal notice sent to the Secretary of Secondary and Higher Secondary Division of Education Ministry, the director general of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and all the chairmen of Intermediate and Secondary Education board.

The legal notice

Citing the legal notice, Shatabdi Roy is a prospective HSC examination candidate this year and she obtained GPA 5.00 in her JSC examination in 2015.

Although she is a brilliant student and has notable results in each of her academic stage, she could not do well in her Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination in 2018 due to ill health. She got only GPA 4.22 in SSC examination.

However, she started working hard since then to cover up the short comings of her SSC result and has taken best preparations for Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination.

Resultantly, she got GPA 5.00 in both the pre-test and test examinations and proved herself as one of the best students in her college.  

Also Read- No HSC, equivalent exams this year, students to advance based on JSC, SSC results

The decision taken by government will affect many students in many ways and would cause irreparable loss to their academic career.  

HSC is a big step up from JSC and SSC and the fact that alternative evaluation is going to be done based on results from those exams will disadvantage many students.

Students who switch education boards after SSC may suffer bad consequences, as results tend to vary in different parts of the country.

Many students who do not do well in earlier board exams often get a chance to improve with their HSC results, and this year, these students are going to be left high and dry, the notice said.

The notice also stated, it is submitted that the outbreak of Covid-19 cannot be denied. But this obstruction should not be the reason of bringing more misfortunes.

If the examinations are not possible to hold at all, the authorities should have taken more appropriate, effective and acceptable method for evaluating the results.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Dipu Moni announced that the government has decided not to hold the HSC and equivalent examinations, in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The HSC and equivalent examinations were scheduled to begin on April 1, but the government was forced to postpone it on March 22 because of the pandemic.