The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent exams have begun across the country except in Sylhet division this morning.

The exams in Sylhet division will start from July 9 as Ministry of Education deferred the board's exams due to flood.

The examinees under the Sylhet Board will sit for Bangla-I, II and English-I and II papers as per new routine to be announced later, said Sylhet Education Board Chairman Rama Bijoy Sarkar.

A total of 14,50,790 students from nine general Education Boards, Madrasha Board and Technical Board are expected to sit for the exams from 9,463 educational institutions at 2,275 centres across the country, according to authorities.

Among them, 11, 28,281 students are supposed to appear from nine general boards, 88,076 from madrasha board and 2, 34,433 from Technical Board respectively.

Some 281 students will appear for the examination from eight overseas centres.

Like the previous years, all coaching centres were asked to keep closed from June 29 till August 11.

Last year, a total of 13, 59,342 students sat for the examinations from all boards.

According to the routine, HSC written exams will continue till August 11 and practical exams will be held from August 12 to August 21.

Besides, the examinations under the Technical Board will continue till July 18 and their practical exams will begin on July 19 and will continue till August 4.

All examinees have been asked to enter the exam centers 30 minutes before the examinations start and the concerned will be informed about the question paper code through SMS 25 minutes before the exams start.

No one will be allowed to enter the exam centers with mobile phones, only in-charges of the exam centers are allowed to carry a mobile phone set.

Besides, no one except examinees, center invigilators, teams of the ministry, teams of boards, local administration and upazila administration team and security personnel will be allowed in the exam centres.

As per the previous announcement, Quick Response Team (QRT) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) will remain available to help the examinees during the exams.