The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations for 2026 began across Bangladesh on Thursday. Thousands of registered candidates were absent on the first day of testing, official figures show, though the majority of students across the country sat their exams as scheduled.
The first day of the examination saw a total of 24,784 absentees, according to a report signed by Dhaka Education Board chairman and head of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee Syed Amirul Islam.
Students across the country sat for exams in the main subjects like Bengali 1st Paper for the general boards, Quran Majeed for the Madrasah board and Bengali-2 for the Technical board. The exams were held in centres nationwide, except for eight centres abroad that operate under the Dhaka board.
For the nine general education boards, 856,097 students were scheduled to sit for the Bengali 1st Paper. Of these, 838,864 students attended, meaning 17,233 students were absent—about 2 percent of the total. The Dhaka board saw the highest number of absences, with 3,971 students missing the test, while other boards like Rajshahi, Comilla, and Jessore also reported significant numbers of empty seats.
To ensure the exams remained fair, officials took action against students caught using unfair methods. A total of seven students were expelled for cheating on the first day. Five of these expulsions happened in the general education boards, specifically in Comilla, Jessore, Dinajpur, and Mymensingh. Boards in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Sylhet, and Barishal reported no cases of cheating.
The Madrasah Education Board reported that 80,653 students took the Quran Majeed exam, with 4,478 absent. One student from this group was expelled. Meanwhile, the Technical Education Board saw 80,603 students attend the Bengali-2 paper, with 3,073 absent and one student expelled.
In total, out of 1,024,904 students registered to take the exams, 1,000,120 participated on the first day. Education officials confirmed that no teachers or exam inspectors were involved in any wrongdoing, and they continue to monitor the exam process closely to ensure everything runs smoothly for the remainder of the session.
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