Dhaka: The marks allocated for the Multiple-Choice Question section will decline by 10% in Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate examinations in 2017.

Instead of the existing 40 marks for the easy-type questions, there will be 30 marks for MCQs. But in case of the existing 35 marks, it will be 25 marks for MCQs. The 10 marks, cut from the MCQs, will be added to creative question section.

The Education Ministry at a meeting chaired by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, made the decision on Wednesday, confirmed Muhd Saifullah, senior information officer of the ministry.

The examinees will sit for the MCQ paper before the creative (written) section from the next SSC and HSC examinations to be held in 2016.

High officials of the ministry, chairmen of the education boards, headmasters and principals of various schools and colleges of Dhaka, as well as experts, were present at the meeting, Saifullah added.

At the meeting, experts emphasised making the state-owned BG Press fully automated to prevent question paper leak during printing question papers, he said.

They also discussed if the duration of JSC, SSC and HSC can be reduced to avoid question paper leak, he added.