Why HSC exams were not postponed – Education Minister’s explanation
Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon has explained the decision not to postpone the HSC Physics exam despite the students’ demands due to rain. In a supplementary question in the National Parliament today (July 14), MP Rumin Farhana said that due to continuous rain, water has accumulated in various cities including Dhaka and Chittagong. In this situation, students requested to postpone the exam for one or two days, but it was not done. What was the problem if the HSC Physics exam was postponed for a few days?
In response, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon said, when floods occurred in Chittagong, we stopped the exams in Rangamati, Bandarban, then Khagrachhari and then the entire board. We were noticing that it was raining. We were monitoring the situation. During the monitoring, we spoke to the SPs of 64 districts, eight divisional commissioners, the chairman of each board, the UNO—everyone. We also spoke to the weather officers. They said there would be no rain. We decided to sit until 5 pm. Everyone was saying that the weather would be good. That is why we postponed the exam. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that the ground of Comilla Government Women’s College was filled with water. However, immediate action was taken after receiving the news that the center was submerged in water.
Mentioning that HSC exams were being held simultaneously in about 2,700 centers across the country, the Education Minister said that except for Comilla Government Women’s College, the Deputy Commissioner and Upazila Executive Officers had not reported such a situation anywhere else in the country. Regarding the candidates at the Comilla exam center, he said that with the cooperation of the mayor, fire service, police and district administration, the candidates were taken to a five-story building by boat and the exam was held there.
At that time, ANM Ehsanulok Haque Milon said that in the existing system of conducting exams in Bangladesh, the local administration can take immediate action during a disaster to decide whether the exam will be held at a certain place or not, and can also decide to stop the exam if necessary after considering the situation.
