The Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations began across the country yesterday.

The exams started with Bangla (first paper) while the duration of the exam was from 11:00am to 1:00pm.

As per the revised and rearranged syllabus, the exam was completed in 2 hours instead of 3.

A total of 20, 21,868 students from 29,591 educational institutions are taking part in SSC, Dakhil and SSC (vocational) exams at 3,790 centres.

A total of 15,99,711 students are participating in the SSC examination under nine general education boards.

Some 2,68,495 candidates are appearing in the Dakhil exam under Madrasa Education Board while 1,53,662 are participating in SSC and Dakhil vocational exams under Technical Education Board. It will continue till October 1.

The examination was supposed to begin on June 19 last, but the Ministry of Education announced the suspension of the SSC and equivalent examinations on June 17 as various parts of the country including Sylhet and Sunamganj were inundated due to severe flood situations.