Khabor Wala Desk
Published: 13th July 2026, 10:30 PM
The Cumilla Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education has taken the decision to move a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) testing centre. This comes after severe flash floods left desperate students swimming and wading through waist-deep water just to make it to their exams on time.
A relentless deluge on Monday morning completely overwhelmed the grounds of Cumilla Government Women’s College, leaving the entire campus submerged. Acknowledging the extreme logistical nightmares and health hazards facing the candidates, education officials stepped in on Monday evening, authorising an immediate venue change for all upcoming papers.
According to Professor Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, the Cumilla Board’s Controller of Examinations, the relocation acts as a vital preventative measure. The strategy aims to protect vulnerable teens from further distress if the current spell of foul weather continues. All affected candidates will report to the new venue starting from the next exam session on Wednesday, 15 July.
The emergency caught the city off guard on Monday, with the local weather station registering an astonishing 107 millimetres of rain within a brief three-hour window between 6:00 am and 9:00 am. The sheer volume of water instantly crippled local transport networks. Major roads, narrow side-streets, and residential lanes rapidly turned into urban rivers, leaving multiple districts under knee-to-waist-high water.
Conditions deteriorated rapidly around Cumilla Government Women’s College. The low-lying campus was swallowed by the rising tide, trapping the 1,209 registered examinees outside.
Desperate not to miss their career-defining papers, many students pushed through the filthy floodwaters, soaking their uniforms and ruining vital revision notes. As the situation grew increasingly chaotic, local municipal workers from the Cumilla City Corporation rushed to the scene with plastic dinghies and cycle vans to ferry the stranded youngsters safely inside.
In a bid to avoid a repeat of Monday’s chaotic scenes, education boards have redirected all 1,209 students to Ajit Guha Mohavidyalay, situated in the city’s Chhatipatti district. Because this second campus is already hosting its own set of HSC examinations, concerns were initially raised regarding overcapacity.
However, Professor Islam dismissed fears of overcrowding, promising a seamless transition. He reassured anxious parents that the alternative site has more than enough floor space, spare desks, and administrative staff to absorb the extra student body without compromising the integrity of the test environment.
Monsoon-related flooding continues to disrupt public services across Bangladesh’s major towns. This rapid response underscores the urgent need for robust climate-resilient planning within the country’s academic calendar to defend students against volatile weather shifts.
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