Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations will begin on January 7 while Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations will start on June 6 from next year.

Education  Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon disclosed the schedule of the public examinations at a press conference on Thursday.

SSC and its equivalent examinations will be concluded on February 6 while HSC and its equivalent examinations will end on July 13, next year, he said.

“The SSC and HSC examinations are extremely important. Approximately 20 lakh students appear in SSC and equivalent examinations and 20 lakh in HSC and equivalent examinations. The education and future of these 40 lakh students are extremely important,” he said.

“We are trying to synchronise the system in a way that gradually closes the gap where students lose nearly a year waiting for the SSC examinations and another year waiting for the HSC examinations. We are considering December as the end of the academic year and the examination month and we have been moving forward accordingly,” said the minister.

This year, the HSC examinations will begin from July 2, he said.

Asked when the results would be published, the minister said, “In 2001, I fixed the timeframe at two months. No one would be allowed to delay the results by even a single day beyond that. That practice is still being followed.”

However, as the system has now become more advanced, the timeframe will be shortened further, not extended, he said.

“I have made it clear in my remarks that we do not want to keep any gap between the publication of results and the admission process. We want students to get admitted immediately after the results are published,” he said.