Inter-Education Board Suspends Wednesday Exams in Deluged Districts

The Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee has announced the postponement of Wednesday’s (8 July) Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations in three districts under the Chittagong Division. The decision affects candidates across Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, and Rangamati districts, where relentless monsoon downpours have severely disrupted daily life, triggered widespread waterlogging, and increased the risk of landslides.

Initial directives released late on Tuesday evening by the committee specified suspensions for Chittagong and Rangamati alone. However, as meteorological conditions deteriorated further along the southeastern coast, a subsequent official notification extended the postponement to Cox’s Bazar. Signed by Professor Syed Akteruzzaman, President of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and Chairman of the Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, the notices confirmed that the revised schedule for the postponed HSC, Alim, HSC (Business Management and Technology), Vocational, and Diploma in Commerce examinations will be communicated at a later date. Meanwhile, examinations in Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts—which also fall under the Chittagong Education Board—as well as all other education boards across the country, will proceed exactly as planned.

Unprecedented Weather Context and Emergency Protocol

The abrupt suspension follows extraordinary rainfall across the region, which has seen Chittagong experience its heaviest precipitation in over four decades. Roads have been submerged under knee-to-waist-deep water, rail links have been severed, and district administrations have been forced to initiate emergency evacuation procedures along vulnerable hillsides. Conducting a public examination under such hazardous circumstances was deemed impossible, as flooded streets would have prevented thousands of students and invigilators from safely reaching their designated examination centres.

This year’s HSC and equivalent examinations commenced across the nation on 2 July, with approximately 1.27 million regular and irregular candidates registering under the country’s 11 education boards. Given the volatile nature of the monsoon season in Bangladesh, authorities had anticipated potential climate disruptions. At a press conference held on 1 July, just a day before the national examinations began, the Minister for Education and Primary and Mass Education, A N M Ehsanul Haq Milan, revealed that an unprecedented security protocol had been established to counter adverse weather.

To preserve the academic calendar without compromising fairness, examiners prepared three distinct sets of question papers for every single subject. This system ensures that if examinations are compromised or delayed by environmental disasters in specific regions, alternative question sets can be deployed smoothly without disrupting the uniform assessment process across the remaining unaffected education boards. While students in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, and Rangamati face an anxious wait for their rescheduled dates, the rest of the country continues with the national evaluation.