The promise has finally become a procedure. Students who were unable to take the HSC and equivalent exams on July 13 due to bad weather now know exactly what to do, and they have a very short deadline.
The Intereducation Board’s Examination Controllers Committee issued a new directive on Friday, July 24, signed by the committee coordinator and Dhaka Board of Education Examination Controller, Professor Jesmin Taslima Banu. According to this directive, test takers wishing to take the resit exam must register at their examination center by July 29.
The Two Things You Must Get Right
Where: your own exam centre. This is the detail most likely to trip people up. The registration is not online — candidates must go to the examination centre where they were originally scheduled to sit the paper and register there. Anyone waiting for a website link or an SMS code will simply miss the deadline.
When: by July 29. The notice sets July 29 as the final date for candidate registration. There is no indication of an extension, so treat it as firm.
The process then moves to the centers: each center must send the information of registered candidates to the exam coordinator of their respective education board by July 30th, as a matter of urgency. This one-day deadline explains why the deadline for candidates is so tight: the boards need to confirm the number of registered candidates quickly in order to organize the exam.
Who Exactly Is Eligible — Including Two Subjects Not Previously Announced
The directive covers examinees of all education boards except Chattogram who could not participate in the July 13 examinations due to adverse weather but wish to sit them now.
For the general education boards, the covered papers are:
- Physics First Paper
- Accounting First Paper
- Logic (Jukti-bidya) First Paper
And here is the part that expands what was previously announced — the same instruction applies to two more examinations:
- English Second Paper under the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board
- Office Management under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board
Madrasah and technical students who had assumed the earlier announcements didn’t cover them should read that carefully: your papers are included, and the same July 29 centre-registration deadline applies to you.
The Scale: Nearly 20,000 Students Were Absent
To understand the importance of this process, consider the figure behind it. On July 13, the sixth day of this year’s HSC exams, held in 59 districts amid torrential rain and flooding, a total of 19,592 students were absent nationwide. (Twenty-nine candidates were expelled that same day for using fraudulent methods—a completely separate matter.)
Not all of those 19,592 were absent due to bad weather, and not all will choose to register. But the figure gives an idea of ​​the population this directive is aimed at: a group large enough that, without this measure, thousands of students would have had a failing grade reflected in their final results through no fault of their own.
When Will the Make-Up Exam Actually Happen?
Registration is the first step; the exam follows. As previously announced by the Minister of Education, these make-up exams will be conducted using a common (unified) questionnaire, alongside the Chattogram Board of Education’s postponed exams, on a date and time to be determined by the Ministry of Education.
Relevant context: The remaining Chattogram Board of Education’s regular exams will resume on July 27 and run until August 8, after which the postponed exams will be held according to a separate schedule that has not yet been published. Make-up exams for registered absentees are expected to be included in this second phase; therefore, the exam date will be clarified when the Chattogram Board’s revised schedule is published.
One Important Reminder About Who Does Not Qualify
It bears repeating, because the confusion has been widespread: this opportunity is only for students who were absent on July 13. Examinees who did sit that day’s paper cannot retake it, and no one’s July 13 examination is being cancelled.
Students who were present but feel the flawed Physics questions hurt them are covered by a different, automatic measure — full marks are being awarded to all examinees for the two defective questions in the Physics First Paper. That requires no registration and no application.
Checklist for Eligible Students
- Confirm you were absent on July 13 in one of the five covered papers (Physics 1st, Accounting 1st, Logic 1st, Madrasah English 2nd, or Technical Office Management)
- Go to your own examination centre — the one where you were originally scheduled — and register there
- Do it by July 29, and don’t leave it to the final day; centres must forward everything by July 30
- Carry your admit card and identification to the centre for the registration
- Watch for the exam date with the Chattogram Board’s revised routine, which we’ll publish as soon as it’s released
- Trust only official notices — with a deadline this tight, misinformation about “online registration links” is exactly the kind of thing that spreads fast on social media
We’ll publish the make-up examination routine, along with any clarification or extension the boards issue, the moment it becomes official. To the students who lost a paper to the floodwater: this is your route back — take it before Wednesday.
