Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations began on Tuesday across Bangladesh.

On the first day, examinations were being held on Bangla (compulsory) first paper and Easy Bangla first paper subjects under the nine general boards, Quran Majid and Tazvid subject under the madrassah education board and Bangla (2) subject under the technical education board from 10:00am.

Since morning the examinees were seen going to the exam centres in the capital.

This year the examinees in Dhaka Metropolitan areas are being allowed to enter the exam centres from 8:00am to avoid traffic congestion.

The decision was taken in response to a request from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner to avoid traffic congestion.

Usually, the exam centres open to the examinees from 9:00am, an hour before the exam starts at 10:00am and allow students to enter the exam hall till 9:30am.

This year around 18.57 lakh examinees from 30,666 educational institutions are scheduled to sit for the exams at 3,885 centres.

This is the first public examination under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government in its current tenure.

The exams are going to be held in a situation when the country is dealing with load shedding amid scorching summer heat making everyday life extremely hard.