Exams under marquees

Three marquees with colourful walls and tarpaulins have popped up on the premises of Jaldhaka Pilot Girls' High School in Nilphamari's Jaldhaka upazila. At first glance, many passers-by might mistake them for a venue for a wedding or a fair or a circus. But actually, those are centres of the ongoing Junior School Certificate (JSC) examinations.

The school authorities have set up the temporary examination centres after failing to accommodate all the designated JSC examinees.

Wares Ali, headmaster of the school, said the upazila education committee recently directed the school authorities to hold the examination of 1,544 JSC examinees from 13 nearby high schools.

“We were having trouble to accommodate such a huge number of students as our school has room for about a thousand. We had to set up the marquees to accommodate all the examinees,” he said, adding that they hired the colourful cloths around the tents and the tarpaulins from local decoration shops. 

The correspondent visited the temporary exam centres on Monday and saw the examinees taking their religious studies exam. Some of them, however, were sweating as there was no ceiling fan over them.

 “It's quite hot in here,” said Anita Rani of Koimari High School and College. Other examinees and Invigilator Shawkat Ali echoed her.

Contacted, Ashfaq Uz Zaman, upazila education officer (UNO), said the situation arouse as the number of examinees at the school was much higher that its capacity.

He said they had to hold the examination in the upazila town so that high government official could visit the centres easily and inspect vigilance.

The UNO, who is also the president of the upazila education committee, said the government was considering building a separate exam centre in the upazila town so that examinations could be held there smoothly.