The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination 2008 and its equivalent examinations under all the educational boards have been deferred by one month to March 27 since the super Cyclone Sidr caused a setback in an advanced schedule for the exams from the next year, an official handout said yesterday.

The official announcement said the examinations were deferred "in view of miseries of students in the country's cyclone-hit areas".

The important public examinations were scheduled to begin from February 28 next year as per the Caretaker Government's plan of advancing the date and publication of results of the examinations in phases.

"However, SSC and its equivalent examinations of 2009 will begin from February 15, while that of 2010 from February 1 according to the previous decision of the Government," said the announcement.

The SSC and its equivalent examinations will commence on a fixed date annually from 2010, and the set date is the first of February every year.

The November 15 cyclone caused colossal damage to life and property in the country's coastal areas. The violent storm battered educational institutions and washed away books and other educational instruments of the students in the affected areas.

Earlier, the Caretaker Government has decided to advance the examinations schedules and publication of results to minimise the loss of valuable time from academic life of students. But the initiative faced a major setback in the very year of start owing to the cruelty of nature.