On the sixth day of this year’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations, 26 students were expelled and 34,946 were absent across 11 education boards in Bangladesh. The Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee released the data in a report signed by its president and Dhaka Education Board chairman, Professor Dr. Khondoker Ehsanul Kabir, on Sunday.

According to the report, under nine general education boards, the compulsory mathematics exam was held with 1,317,173 registered candidates, of whom 1,298,521 were present, leaving 18,652 absent. Fourteen students were expelled under six of these boards. In the Madrasa Education Board’s Bangla second paper exam, 12,576 students were absent out of 249,030, and six were expelled. The Technical Education Board’s Physics-2 exam recorded 3,718 absentees out of 119,993 candidates, with six expulsions.

The report noted that absenteeism and expulsions were highest in the Madrasa Education Board’s Dakhil examinations, reflecting a continuing trend of irregular attendance in that stream.