HSC and equivalent exam results declared today. This time, 92 thousand 365 people got GPA-5 out of more than 1.5 lakh students who participated in the examination in 11 education boards. In 2022, the number of students who got A+ was 1 lakh 76 thousands 282. Accordingly, the number of students who got GPA-5  decreased by 83 thousand 917 this year. Apart from this average pass rate in 11 education boards is 78.64 percent. Last year the pass rate was 85.95 percent. Earliar of this event, Chairman of various education boards handed over the summary of results to the Prime Minister at Gonabhaban. This year 13 lakh 59 thousand 342 of 11 boards including 9 general education boards participated in the examination. Among them, male students were 6 lakh 88 thousand 887 and 6 lakh 70 thousand 455 were female students. This information was comfirmed by Professor Tapan Kumar Sarkar, Chairman of Inter-Education Coordination Board Sub-Committee and Chairman of Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.

HSC and equivalent exam results declared today. This time, 92 thousand 365 people got GPA-5 out of more than 1.5 lakh students who participated in the examination in 11 education boards. In 2022, the number of students who got A+ was 1 lakh 76 thousands 282. Accordingly, the number of students who got GPA-5  decreased by 83 thousand 917 this year. Apart from this average pass rate in 11 education boards is 78.64 percent. Last year the pass rate was 85.95 percent. Earliar of this event, Chairman of various education boards handed over the summary of results to the Prime Minister at Gonabhaban. This year 13 lakh 59 thousand 342 of 11 boards including 9 general education boards participated in the examination. Among them, male students were 6 lakh 88 thousand 887 and 6 lakh 70 thousand 455 were female students. This information was comfirmed by Professor Tapan Kumar Sarkar, Chairman of Inter-Education Coordination Board Sub-Committee and Chairman of Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.

The results of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams were published on July 28, where the overall pass rate is 80.39 percent which is 7.05 percentage point lower than last year’s.   Last year, 87.44 percent students passed the SSC and equivalent exams.   Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni and Deputy Minister for Education Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury formally handed over the SSC results of 2023 to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban here this morning.   A total of 20 lakh 41 thousand 450 students participated in the exams. Of them, 16 lakh 41 thousand 140 students have passed.  Of the successful students, 7 lakh 96 thousand 404 are male and 8 lakh 44 thousand 736 are female.   This year, 1,83,578 students got the GPA-5. Of  them, 84,964 are male and 98,614 are female students.   In the nine general education boards, some 13,22,446 students passed out of  16,33,919 - where some 6,16,071 are male and some 7,06375 are females.    A total of 1,59,220 students got the highest Grade Point Average (GPA-5) in the SSC exams.   In the Madrasah Education Board, a total of 2,12,964students - 1,00,950 male and 1,12,014 female - passed out of 2,85,087 students. Of them, some 6213 students got GPA-5.   In the Technical Education Board, 1,05,730 students – 79,383 male and 26,347 female – passed out of total1,22,444 students. Of them, 18,145 students got the GPA-5.    The pass rates in different education boards of the country are: 77.50 percent in Dhaka Board, 90.1 percent in Barishal Board, 78.3 percent in Chattogram Board, 78.4 in Cumilla Board, 76.8 percent in Dinajpur Board, 86.2 percent in Jashore Board, 87.9 percent in Rajshahi Board, 76.1 percent in Sylhet Board, 85 percent in Mymensingh Board, 83.4 percent in the Technical Education Board, and 74.7 percent in the Madrasah Board.    A total of 375 students appeared in the exams through the exam centers abroad and of them, 320 students have passed.    Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni held a press briefing on the SSC and equivalents exams results at 11am at the International Mother Language Institute here. “We are pledge-bound to build a smart Bangladesh. The results have been published in a total paperless system,” said the education minister in her speech at the press briefing, adding the candidates will get their results directly on the mobile phones.   Deputy Minister for Education Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury, senior secretary of Technical and Madrasah Education Department M Kamal Hossain, Higher Secondary Education Secretary Suleman Khan and Chairmen of all education boards, among others, were present at the briefing.   Students of 29,798 institutions under 11 education boards, including nine general education boards, took part in this year's examination at 3,810 centers.

On Thursday, March 02, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and UNICEF launch the book “Pass It To Rizwana” written by an American elementary teacher Crystal Pottebaum developed by Her Story Foundations and Deshi Ballers supported by UNICEF.  This book will show how a girl can remove all barriers and engage her and her friends in sports.  Elisa Calpona, Child protection Manager in UNICEF explained that a new partnership between UNICEF and Ministry of Youth and Sports sealed in 2022 and in only 4 months allowed 1.6 million girls and boys to play sports.  3,7 million children and parents received awareness on violence prevention during almost 500 sports tournaments.  This a community-led approach owned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and therefore sustainable and scalable nationwide.  Natalie McCauley, the Chief of Child Protection vows to everyone to create a world where every girl has the opportunity to participate in sports and reach their full potential.  The author of “Pass It To Rizwana”, Crystal Pottebaum shared her experience to learn Bangladeshi culture and how a true story can motivate other children and parents to engage their children in sports.  The secretary, Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed shared how important sports are for children and thanked UNICEF for incorporating sports to end violence and for the partnership of UNICEF and Ministry of Youth and Sports.   At the end of the event a basketball match was conducted between the two teams of the book 'The Scholars' and 'Alien Eggs'.

The business community has given a week’s deadline to open the Pak-China border that has been closed for more than 20 months. Traders who use this land route have begun protesting in Islamabad, decrying the massive damage the closure has caused their businesses. Traders in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) lamented that they have lost patience over the continuous closure of the Sost border. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, a group of traders from GB headed by Exporters Association Chairman Javed Hussain has appealed to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the foreign minister, commerce minister and the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan to open the Pak-China border for trade. Hussain said that due to the closure of the border, traders have lost millions of rupees. “All traders of the region will be forced to hold peaceful sit-ins outside Khunjerab Pass, the Parliament House and Ministry of Foreign Affairs if their demands are not met.” He said that the Pak-China is the only source of livelihood for all small and big traders of the region.  Hussain said that the Pakistani Foreign Ministry has issued a notification to reopen the Pak-China border. However, the Chinese authorities have refused to implement the notification due to which the goods imported from China by Pakistani traders are getting damaged in the warehouses of Kashgar, which may cause a further loss of millions. Besides, the goods of Diamerbhasha Dam, Dasu and Mohmand Dams lying in the warehouses of Kashgar are also deteriorating. It may be recalled here that China had earlier agreed to open the Khunjerab border for trade but with stiff conditions in view of the Covid-19 situation. Under the conditions set by the Chinese government, Pakistani exporters and importers would not be allowed to enter China and would instead load and unload goods on Pakistan’s side of the border for inspection and sterilisation. However, the border has remained closed for bilateral trade despite assurances from both countries for unknown reasons. Source: Profit B.M./ Rtv

Bangladesh has recorded 10,081 COVID-19 deaths so far since its first detection on March 8 last year while the tally of infections has surged to 7,07,362 as 4,192 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. “The country today reported 94 COVID-19 deaths, second highest in a single day, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement today. It said 21.00 percent of the 19,959 samples collected in 24 hours were tested positive while the infection rate was only 2.30 percent just on February 8 this year as during the late winter season, the rate started decreasing sharply. The samples were tested at 257 authorized medical laboratories across the country during the time as the government put in efforts to increase the number of testing centers gradually with resurgence of the pandemic. The recovery count rose to 5,97,214 after another 5,915 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day. The DGHS statistics showed of the people infected from the beginning, 84.43 percent recovered, while 1.43 percent died. It said 69 out of the 94 died in Dhaka division alone and 64 of them were male while 30 were female and added that three are in their 30s, 14 in their 40s, 25 in their 50s while 52 are above 60 years. Bangladesh recorded the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities on June 30 last year when the virus killed 64 people in a day. DGHS said the country logged 6,469 coronavirus positive cases on April 1, 6,830 on April 2, 5,683 on April 3, 7,087 on April 4, 7,075 on April 5, 7,213 April 6, 7,626 on April 7, 6,854 on April 8, 7,462 on April 9, 5,343 on April 10, 5,819 on April 11, 7,201 on April 12, 6,028 on April 13, 5,185 on April 14 and 4,192 on April 15. According to month-wise statistics last year, 51 COVID-19 positive cases were detected in March 2020, 7616 in April, 39,486 in May, 98,330 in June, 92,178 in July, 75,335 in August, 50,483 in September, 44, 205 in October, 57,248 in November and 48,578 in December. The beginning of the current year witnessed a drastic fall of coronavirus cases in the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 cases were detected in January and 11,077 in February. The entire month of March witnessed a sharp increase of infection as the virus infected 65,079 people. The DGHS said among the total 10,081 fatalities, 5,854 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 1,808 in Chattogram, 541 in Rajshahi, 628 in Khulna, 301 in Barishal, 346 in Sylhet, 391 in Rangpur and 212 in Mymensingh division. DGHS said in order to make treatment facilities easily available for the COVID-19 patients, the government has introduced telemedicine services comprising 100 physicians for round the clock in the country. It added that 2,72,00,129 people received healthcare services from hotline mobile numbers and health web portals as the government formed a group of medical professionals to provide emergency healthcare services. To receive information and treatment facilities on COVID-19, the contact hotline and mobile numbers are 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222. As of April 15, 2021, 11:55 GMT, 2,988,809 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak and there are currently 138,978,474 confirmed cases in 212 countries and territories, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics. China was the world’s first country which on January 11, 2020 reported the first death from the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province. Source: BSS AH

Shipping has started to pass through the new channel dredged in the outer bar of Mongla port. The project titled "Dredging at the Outer Bar Area of Mongla Port Channel" for handling 10.5 m draft vessels in the anchorage area of ​​Mongla Port was approved at the ECNEC meeting at an estimated cost of Tk 712.50 crore. After the approval of the project, Hong Kong River Engineering Co. Ltd.-China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation JV signed the agreement on December 13, 2018. The contractor started dredging after the contract was signed. The dredging area is divided into two sections, one of which is located about 20 km south of Hiron Point in the open sea and the other section is adjacent to Hiron Point. After completing the section within the sea and about 85% of the dredging of the adjoining section at Hiron point creating a channel with a depth of 8.5 m CD depth in the entire channel from the fairway buoy to Hiron Point. It should be noted that this channel is located on the west side of the currently used channel along Bangabandhu Char. Ships of higher drafts could not come to the port as the existing channel had a minimum depth of 6.5 m  CD in some places from Fairway Buoy to Hiron Point. But after Hiron Point to Harbaria Anchorage, it has a depth of 8.5m CD and in some anchorages is 10.5 m CD to berth ships. Ships of high draft could not be brought to the anchorage of the port only for the limitation of the outer bar. Besides, the current channel is quite zigzag. As a result of dredging at a depth of 8.5m CD, the port is now facilitated to bring ships of 10.5 m draft at high tide. Shipping has started from November 17, 2020 after installing buoy on the new dredged channel. As the new channel is relatively safe, it takes less time for ships to reach the port and the ships are able to arrive safely. This will greatly increase the number of ships in the port and the revenue is increasing. So far the overall progress of the project is 95% and the remaining work will be completed by December 2020. It should be noted that, As one of the ENR-listed top 100 global contractors for consecutive nineteen years with a global business network in 103 countries and regions, CCECC has been engaged in a wide spectrum of infrastructure projects worldwide in diverse fields such as railway, road, elevated expressway, bridge, marine works including dredging, and housing projects in the capacity of an EPC Contractor or a private investor. Since its incorporation in Bangladesh from 2015, CCECC has been engaged in 10 no.s infrastructure development projects totaling more than 2.0 Billion US Dollars in the domains of railway engineering, dredging and marine works, and roads and highways. AH  

Senior Secretary of primary and mass education ministry Akram Al Hossain said, from class one to class five in the government primary schools syllabus has been made short for examination based evaluation centering the months of October and November. Class evaluations will be made based on that after taking the examinations for the students of class one to class five if schools are opened. If schools cannot be opened then there will be no alternative but auto pass in the examinations. The Senior Secretary said these on Sunday at a press conference at secretariat on the occasion of taking preparation for celebrating international literacy day. Primary and Mass Education Minister Md. Zakir Hossain was present at that time. Akram Al Hossain said, it is uncertain when the schools will be opened in the coronavirus pandemic situation. Considering the matter of school reopening in the month of October and November two short syllabuses were prepared and finalized. In which month the schools can be opened based on that syllabus and given lessons students can be promoted to the next class after taking class evaluations. If schools cannot be opened then examinations and evaluations cannot be possible and there will no alternative but auto pass. The decisions will be taken based on the situation. He said, we have taken different types of steps to prevent drop out of students. Literacy rate have to be increased among the aged people. Many kindergarten schools may be shut in the coronavirus situation and in this regard we have directed the adjacent government primary schools to admit students. Anybody can be admitted anywhere. AH   

The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide has passed 18 million, according to an AFP tally from official sources at 2240 GMT Sunday. At least 18,011,763 cases have now been registered as the pandemic’s rate of infection continues to accelerate. A million more cases have been detected in just the last four days. More than half of the world’s cases have been recorded in the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The United States is the worst-hit country with 4,657,693 cases including 154,793 deaths, followed by Brazil, with 2,733,677 cases and 94,104 deaths. The third worst-hit country is India, with 1,750,723 cases and 37,364 deaths. Worldwide, there have been 687,941 deaths. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases. Source: AFP/BSS AH

The global death toll from coronavirus has reached 177,619 as of Wednesday morning. So far, 2,556,745 cases have been confirmed around the world after the disease was first reported in China in December last, according to Worldometer. Of them, 1,668,730 are currently being treated and 57,245 of them are in serious or critical condition. So far, 690,393 people have recovered. Bangladesh has so far confirmed 110 deaths and 3,382 cases. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11. Source: UNB AH