Anti-exam feat for BNP, allies

The continuing disturbances to the SSC examinees have set a record.

This record, it should be noted, has been reached at the expense of around 15 lakh SSC examinees who have been put under great strain due to continual deferral of scheduled exams.

The credit for this goes to the BNP-led 20-party alliance that has mindlessly been enforcing shutdowns in addition to its non-stop countrywide blockade.    

The students have so far appeared in the exams of 18 papers on five days, including five compulsory subjects.

But none of the exams was held as per schedule. All of them, on the contrary, were deferred and held on weekends in the last three weeks, thanks to the hartals and the ongoing blockade.  

Things are far from taking a turn for the better. The education ministry yesterday deferred today's exams to February 28 (Saturday) and Tuesday's exams to March 6 (Friday) as another fresh spell of the BNP-led alliance's 72-hour countrywide hartal begins this morning.

The ministry has yet to decide on the fate of exams of two more papers scheduled for Thursday.

But the present trend of enforcing hartal suggests that the 72-hour hartal will be extended till Friday morning as it has happened in the last three weeks. If it be so, Thursday's exams will also be deferred in all likelihood.

The students' strain began with the deferral of their first examination on February 2 due to a hartal on that    day.

As there is no sign for an end to the ongoing political turmoil, it is very likely that exams of more than 20 papers scheduled for the next week and the first week of March will also be put off.

As it has been in the past three weeks, we have reasons to predict that not a single exam will be held on schedule. If our prediction comes true, which we heartily expect not to happen, it will be an unprecedented record set by our politicians, a record they will be setting by leaving permanent scars on the minds of our future nation-builders.

In 2013, the SSC and equivalent examinations have also suffered political unrest. But in that year, students were at least able to take some of the exams as per schedule as the BNP-led alliance had not enforced hartals as frequently as this year. 

Given this year's situation, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid too seems to be in a hapless position as much as the students and their guardians.

Whenever he deferred any exams in the last three weeks, he hoped that the remaining exams would be held as per schedule. He even appealed to the BNP-led alliance not to enforce hartals on exam days.

But neither his hope nor his appeal has worked. It seems sick politics has gained an upper hand on everything.