Dhaka: The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations of 2018 under 10 education boards will begin across the country on Monday amid tough measures taken to check question paper leakage and other malpractices in the examinations.

A total of 13,11,457 examinees from 8,864 educational institutions will appear in the examinations this year. Of them, 6, 35,697 are male and 5,47,989 female, said officials of the Education Ministry.

They said only the in-charge officers of respective centres will be allowed to enter the examination halls with mobile phones as they will be given instruction via a text message about the set of question papers.

The authorities will open envelopes of question papers about 25 minutes before the examinations start and they have already taken decision to shut down all the coaching centres till completion of the examinations, a top official of the ministry told a meeting recently.

He said all the authorities concerned are sincerely working to root out all possible sources of question paper leakage as a vested quarter is involved in the malpractices.

A total of 10,92,607 candidates are set to sit for the examinations from eight general education boards while 1, 00,127 under the Madrasa Education Board and 1, 17,754 from the Technical Education Board.

A total of 1, 27,771 candidates have been increased this year comparing to the previous year.

Besides, 299 students will appear in the examinations from seven overseas centres.

All the examinees have been asked to take their seats in the examination centres 30 minutes before the examinations begin.

The written examinations will continue until May 13 while the practical examinations will be held from May 14 to May 23.

Candidates with physical disabilities will receive an additional 20 minutes in the examinations while the examinees with special needs, including those with autism, will get 30 additional minutes.

A total of 11, 83,686 examinees appeared in the HSC and equivalent examinations last year.