Barna Ahmed
Burghfield St. Mary’s School, UK
Bangladesh is contemplating a significant restructuring of its public examination system. Proposals to reduce the number of subjects examined at the Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate levels and to compress the examination schedule have been put forward as measures to ease student stress and minimise disruption to academic routines. While the intention is laudable, the implications for what pupils learn, how deeply they learn it, and how prepared they are for the next stage of their education demand scrutiny.
Knowledge and Skills at Risk
The most immediate consequence of reducing examination subjects is the narrowing of the curriculum that students engage with seriously. When a subject is removed from the examination, schools, parents, and students alike tend to divert attention away from it. Subjects that fall outside the tested range risk being marginalised, regardless of their educational value. A student who never sits an examination in history or geography or civics may never develop foundational literacy in those areas. This is where we can experience lack of confidence in a student to take challenges for summer jobs or voluntary work for CV as work experience which can develop unnecessary stress. Over time, this erosion produces a generation with significant gaps in general knowledge and critical thinking skills that transcend narrow disciplinary boundaries.
Beyond content knowledge, the current examination structure, despite its flaws, requires students to develop a suite of intellectual skills: sustained concentration over lengthy periods, the ability to synthesise information across multiple topics, time management under pressure, and the discipline of revising broadly. Shortening the examination window and cutting subjects reduces the very conditions that build these skills. A condensed schedule means fewer opportunities for pupils to practise sitting formal assessments, less exposure to varied question formats, and diminished experience in pacing themselves through demanding papers. These are not merely exam techniques; they are transferable competencies that serve students in higher education and professional life.
Consequences for Further Studies
Higher education in Bangladesh and abroad increasingly values breadth alongside specialisation. University admission tests, both domestic and international, often assume familiarity with a range of subjects at the secondary level. Students who have been examined on a reduced set of subjects may find themselves at a disadvantage when competing for places in programmed that require broader foundational knowledge. A pupil who drops science subjects early to focus on a narrower examination slate may discover that pathways in engineering, medicine, or the natural sciences are effectively closed, even teaching in primary education can be a barrier not having enough required standards on science subjects.
Furthermore, the habits of rigorous study cultivated in preparation for comprehensive examinations build resilience and intellectual stamina. When the examination burden is lightened without corresponding enhancements in teaching quality or alternative assessment methods, the risk is not merely that students know less, but that they develop weaker study habits. They may enter university unprepared for the sustained independent reading, research, and analytical writing that higher education demands. The gap between school level preparation and university level expectations could widen, placing additional strain on higher education institutions that must remediate what secondary schooling no longer provides.
Pupils with Special Needs and the Challenge of Reasonable Adjustment
Any reform to the examination system must be evaluated through the lens of inclusion. Pupils with special needs, including those with visual impairments, hearing difficulties, autism spectrum conditions, learning disabilities, and physical mobility challenges, already face formidable barriers in accessing public examinations. The current system, though imperfect, provides certain adjustments: extra time, scribes, enlarged printing papers, and separate examination centres. These provisions, however inadequate in practice, are calibrated to an existing examination structure with known durations, subject combinations, and scheduling patterns.
Shortening examinations and reducing subjects introduces unpredictable variables. If the examination window is compressed, pupils who already require additional time may find the condensed schedule leaves even less room for the adjustments they depend upon. A student who is granted twenty-five percent extra time in a three-hour paper faces a very different calculation when the paper shrinks to ninety minutes and the examination day is packed with fewer breaks. The relative burden of adjustment increases, yet the schedule may not accommodate it.
Pupils with spectrum conditions or anxiety related needs often rely on predictability and familiarity. Changing the examination format, reducing subjects, and compressing schedules disrupts established routines that schools and families have worked to put in place. Adjusting marks or grades can also affect their mental health. Reasonable adjustment is not merely a procedural checkbox; it requires meaningful recalibration every time the examination structure changes. Without deliberate planning, each reform risks creating new barriers even as it removes old ones.
The obligation to provide reasonable adjustment is both a legal and moral imperative. Shortening examinations must be accompanied by a parallel and equally thorough review of how every adjustment is recalibrated. This means consulting disability rights organisations, special educators, and families of pupils with special needs before, not after, policy decisions are finalised. It means piloting shortened formats with diverse learners and gathering evidence on whether existing provisions remain adequate. It means ensuring that the definition of reasonable adjustment evolves alongside the examination system rather than lagging it.
A Call for Measured Reform
Reducing stress and reclaiming instructional time are worthy goals. But reform must not come at the cost of diminishment: diminishment of knowledge, of skills, of readiness for further study, and of inclusion for the most vulnerable pupils. The path forward requires not simply fewer exams, but better ones, supported by robust adjustment frameworks, broader assessment of pupil competencies, and an unwavering commitment that no student is left disadvantaged by the very changes meant to help them.
Related news:
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/education/news/plan-underway-shorten-ssc-hsc-exams-4192446
