The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations began simultaneously across the country on Thursday, with over 12.70 lakh candidates set to appear under 11 education boards.

HSC exams began at 10 am with Bangla 1st Paper on the first day.

Students from 9,439 educational institutions are expected ti sit for the examinations at 2,697 centres under the country's nine general education boards, the Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board and the Bangladesh Technical Education Board.

A total of 77 subjects will be covered over 21 examination days.

Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Abdul Khaleque briefed reporters about the exams at Secretariat on Wednesday.

Regular classes will continue at educational institutions on days when no examinations are scheduled.

Of the total candidates, 6,21,969 are male and 648,614 are female under the nine general education boards with female candidates outnumbering males by 26,645.

All nine general education boards will conduct examinations using a uniform set of question papers this year.

CCTV cameras have been installed at all examination centres, while a central monitoring cell has been set up at the Ministry of Education to oversee examination activities in real time across the country.

A total of 1,069,714 candidates will sit for the examinations under the nine general education boards this year, an increase of 14,316 from last year.

The number of participating institutions has increased by 77, while the number of examination centres has risen by 21.

Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board has 92,905 candidates this year, up by 6,803 from last year. The number of institutions under the board has increased by 23 and examination centres by two.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Technical Education Board has 107,964 candidates, 1,647 fewer than last year.

The number of examination centres under the board has also declined by 123 to 610.