As many as 3,096,075 fifth-grade students are taking Primary Education Completion and Ebtedayee exams at 7,267 centres on Sunday.
The English exam is the first, starting at 11am and ending at 1:30pm. The exams will end on Nov 26.Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar will inspect the Motijheel Ideal Government Primary School, an exam centre, the ministry said.
Examinees, teachers, officials and staff are barred from entering the exam centre with mobile phones.
“Only the centre’s secretary can enter the premises with a mobile phone, which can only be used in a limited manner at the administration offices in emergency situations. But the mobile phone must be turned off until the question papers arrive and the distribution is completed in the exam room.”
The primary school completion exams are also being held at 12 centres outside Bangladesh.This year 2,804,509 are taking their PEC exams, while 291,566 are taking the Ebtedayee exams.Last year 3,230,288 students took the exams. In 2015, the number was 2,254,514.
The mass education minister said that this year there are 189,801 more female candidates than male candidates.
This year 2,953 special needs candidates will take the PEC exams, while 379 signed up for the Ebdetayee exams. They will each receive 20 extra minutes to complete the exams,according to bdnews24.com report.
The PEC exams began in 2009. The Ebdetayee exams were introduced in 2010. A grade-based system was implemented in 2011.
The exams were initially 2-hour long, but were increased in length by a half an hour in 2013.Last year the 64 districts were divided into eight regions and eight sets of question papers were distributed among them in an effort to curb the question leaks.