Dhaka: Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations-2017 will begin on Wednesday across the country with the participation of 24, 68,820 examinees.

‘As many as 24, 68,820 students from 28,621 educational institutions will appear in the public examination this year. Of them, 11, 44,778 are male and 13, 24,042 are female’ Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told a press briefing held in the conference room of the Ministry on Wednesday last.

The number of JSC examinees is 20, 90,277 while 3, 78,543 examinees will participate in the JDC examination this year.

A total of 659 students from nine overseas centres will appear in the JSC examinations.

A total of 56,045 examinees have increased in the JSC and JDC examinations this year compared to the last year as 24,12,775 candidates took part in the examination in 2016.

The JSC and JDC starting tomorrow will end on 18 November, according to the examination schedule.

Since the introduction of JSC and JDC examinations in 2010, the education minister said, the number of examinees has been continuously increasing which has showed a positive sign in checking dropout rate at secondary level.

He observed that terminal examinations system at primary level and JSC and JDC examinations at junior secondary level significantly contributed to reduce the dropout rate.

As many as 14,92,802 students appeared in JSC and JDC examinations in 2010, 18,61,113 examinees in 2011, 19,08,365 in 2012, 19,02,746 candidates in 2013, 20,90,692 in 2014 and 23,25,933 examinees in 2015.