JSC examinees doing last-minutes panicky revision right on the stairs of a footbridge near the exam centre of Motijheel Govt Boys' High School & College around 7:30am yesterday. The examination would begin at 9:00am. Photo: Anisur Rahman Outside the compound of Motijheel Government Boys High School, a large crowd of parents were waiting for their children to finish the first day's JSC exams test y
esterday. Anxiety was writ large on their faces. They were worried about how their children were faring in the exam. However, they were more concerned about the fate of the upcoming exams: whether those too will be postponed due to hartals enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami. Amid such apprehensions, Class-VIII terminal tests of Junior School Certificate (JSC) and its madrasa equivalent Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations began yesterday at 2,525 centres under eight general education boards and one madrasa board. The JSC candidates appeared for the Bangla first paper while JDC examinees for Quran Mazid and Tazbid tests. A total of 20,90,692 students -- 11,05,509 boys and 9,85,183 girls -- from 27,925 schools and madrasas have registered for the JSC and JDC tests that were scheduled to begin on November 2. The authorities had to reschedule the tests because of two spells of shutdowns called to protest the verdicts on Jamaat leaders for their crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The examinees said they did well in the tests. However, the mental pressure caused by hartals sank their spirits, they added. "After completing full preparation for a subject, I came to know suddenly that the exam will be deferred because of hartals. It just demoralised us," said Ankita, a JSC examinee. Advertisement Parents were anxious that more hartals would be enforced next week as Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, a war crimes convict, might be executed. "If it is so, our children will be in deep trouble," said the father of a JSC examinee. Sharmin, mother of another JSC examinee, said her daughter had difficulty getting preparation as four of her JSC examinations were postponed and she remained unsure about what to study. "We don't do politics. Neither do our kids. But they always fall prey to political crises," she said. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid visited the Motijheel Government Boys High School in Dhaka and urged all political parties not to impose any hartal during the JSC exams for students' sake. "Security of the children is our first concern and that's why we were compelled to reschedule the exams. We have time and again urged all political parties not to obstruct the exams by calling hartals but that went unheeded," he said. The minister sought cooperation from all. Meanwhile, a total of 46,040 candidates were absent on the first day of the examinations while five students were expelled for resorting to unfair means. Madrasa Board had the highest number of absentees with 14,243 candidates skipping the exam. Among the expelled, four are from the Madrasa Board while the rest from the Dhaka Board, according to the education ministry's control room.
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