The government has made the decision to reimburse a portion of the application fees that were collected for this year's Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalents exams.

The decision was made after the HSC and equivalent examinations were called-off on October 7 due to health-safety concerns. Instead, candidates will be evaluated based on their results in Junior School Certificate (JSC), Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and their equivalent tests.

"As there's no need to spend on many exam related costs, we will refund a part of the form fill-up fees," Ziaul Haque, chairperson of Dhaka Education Board told The Daily Star. These costs include examiner's fees, script evaluation fees, practical exam arrangement fees etc.

"We are still calculating the amount of money that will be reimbursed," said Ziaul, who is also chair of Inter-education Board Coordination Sub-committee. "Once the process is completed, we will reach out to the students."

The education boards had previously charged Tk 2,500 for science students and Tk 1,940 for humanities and business students as form fill-up fees.

This is the first time an HSC candidate will be evaluated without the tests since they were introduced in the mid-60s. More than 13.65 lakh students were expected to sit for the exams.

On March 22, HSC and equivalent exams slated for April 1 were postponed due to the pandemic. This year's Primary Education Completion and its equivalent exams as well as JSC and its equivalent exams have also been cancelled.

Yesterday, the government also announced the decision to promote over one crore school and madrasa students of class six to nine without any annual exams.