Fate of some 8,000 SSC examinees uncertain
Staff Correspondent
Uncertainty looms over the future of about 8,000 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) candidates who failed the exam of one subject in 2001 and could not register for the next examinations for bureaucratic tangles.Board officials allegedly returned their registration forms, sent by colleges, without registering them for the next examinations. Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Boards in a joint announcement in October last year said the examinees would be able to sit for the HSC examinations in 2004 if they passed in the failed subject in 2002. The students who scored 1.5 or higher grade point average (GPA) but failed in one subject were allowed to enroll in colleges as private examinees. But the students allege that some colleges did not enroll them despite the announcement. The announcement also said examinees of SSC and Dakhil of 2001 who failed in up to four subjects, would be allowed to appear in all subjects or the failed subjects as private examinees, if they had valid registrations. Higher class enrolment will remain valid for the examinees who failed in one subject in 2001 but enrolled in colleges and again failed in the same subject in 2002. But they will not be allowed to appear in the HSC examination in 2003. In that case, those examinees will be allowed to appear in the HSC examinations in 2004 if they passed in the failed subject, the announcement said. The board will allow them to appear in the examination for the last time, but they require a new registration, if the previous one expires. Registration remains valid for two academic years. Similar rule will apply to the examinees who have failed in one subject but have not enrolled in colleges. The government will not allow further extension of the opportunity, the announcement added. A senior official of the Dhaka education board said that they would take punitive action against colleges if they were reluctant to register examinees. He, however, said there was no such report that the board officials declined to register such examinees. Several thousand examinees failed in the SSC examination in 2001 following introduction of grading system and enrolled in colleges under the new system. But many of them could not pass the exams. Guardians have sought intervention of the education minister in settling the problem.
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