The long hiatus is finally over. The Chittagong Education Council’s HSC and equivalent examinations, suspended indefinitely last week due to severe flooding, will resume on July 27, Education Minister Dr. A. N. M. Ehsanul Haque Milon announced on Thursday, July 23.
For thousands of candidates in the five districts affected by the floods, this is the news they have been waiting for for almost two weeks.
What Resumes First — and What Comes After
The minister’s announcement outlines an important two-step structure that candidates must clearly understand.
Starting July 27, the Chittagong Board’s pre-scheduled exams—those that followed the original schedule before the suspension intensified—will proceed as normal. Only after these already scheduled exams are completed will the Board announce a separate schedule for the previously postponed exams—the tests that were suspended at the beginning of the disruption.
In short: July 27 does not necessarily mean that all pending exams will be rescheduled. It means that normal exam activity will resume, and the delayed exams will be rescheduled subsequently.
The Five Affected Districts
The Chittagong Education Board’s disruption affected five districts: Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, and Bandarban. Candidates across all five should watch for board notices as July 27 approaches, since center assignments and updated routines will be communicated through official channels.
A Quick Recap of How We Got Here
This suspension was implemented in stages. Individual exams were postponed one by one as the flooding worsened: first, isolated dates were rescheduled, and eventually, the entire remaining exam schedule was suspended until further notice. The education board justified the suspension by citing the overall flooding situation, the physical and mental state of the test-takers, and the poor condition of the roads, which made it difficult for candidates to safely reach the exam centers.
Throughout the suspension, the government maintained that no candidate would permanently lose an exam, a commitment reiterated in Parliament, where the Minister of Education confirmed that the government was prepared to organize make-up exams for any HSC candidate who was unable to attend due to the flooding.
What Chittagong Candidates Should Do Now
With four days between the announcement and resumption, use this window wisely:
- Shift out of open-ended waiting mode. A concrete date is now on the calendar — treat July 27 as real and prepare accordingly.
- Confirm your specific exam dates through your school or the board’s official notices, since pre-determined and postponed papers may follow different timelines.
- Watch for the postponed-exam schedule separately — it will not appear until after the July 27 batch of exams concludes.
- Keep documentation of any flooding-related disruption you personally faced, in case retest provisions apply to you.
The Road Ahead
This resumption doesn’t end the story. The rescheduled timetable for the previously postponed exams is still pending, and how quickly the board releases it will determine how the rest of the HSC season unfolds for the Chittagong candidates.
Rising Barta has followed this story from the initial postponement to today, and we will publish the rescheduled exam timetable as soon as the board announces it. Stay tuned: the finish line is getting closer.
