The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent exams of this year have started on Monday with no reports of question leak.

Following leaks of question papers of eighth and fifth graders last year, questions of this year’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams have appeared on the social media, especially Facebook, ahead of the tests.

Similar attempts were found ahead of the HSC exams on social media sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp, but none of the purported questions appeared on these sites matched with the actual question paper for Monday’s test.

"We are yet to receive any reports of question paper leak," Dhaka Education Board Exam Controller Tapan Kumar Sarker told the Bangla Tribune.

Against the backdrop of harsh criticism over the question leaks in recent years, the education ministry decided to set the questions for the HSC and equivalent exams by lottery 25 minutes prior to the exams to prevent the leaks.

“The sealed envelopes containing the questions have been opened 25 minutes before the test after we received the set code,” said Jasim Uddin Ahmed, principal of Dhanmondi Ideal College and secretary of the exam centre.

Earlier in the day, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the government is doing everything possible to put a lid on question leak.

“We have adopted all possible measures to plug question leaks and stop any kind of irregularities. We hope it will not happen this time and if it happens, the perpetrators will face legal consequences,” he said after visiting an exam centre in Dhaka.

More than 1.3 million students are taking part in the exams at 2,541 centres in Bangladesh and abroad.

The theoretical exams are scheduled to end on May 5 while the practical exams have been scheduled between May 16 and 25.