Dhaka: The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and its equivalent examinations of 2017 under ten education boards across the country begin at about 10:00am on Thursday.

This year, 17,86,613 students — 9,10,501 boys and 8,76,112 girls — will take part in the examinations.

Of them, 14,25,900 students will sit for the SSC examination under eight general education boards. Some 2,56501 students will appear in the Dakhil examinations while 1,4212 students will participate in the SSC (vocational) examination.

The examinations will be held at 3236 centres across the country.

The education ministry sources said a total of 93 new exam centres have been set up as 1,35,090 examinees have increased this year.

A total of 446 students from eight overseas centres will appear in the SSC examinations. This year, the SSC examinations will be held under creative question papers except Bangla 2nd paper, English 1^st  and 2^nd papers.

A total of 16,51,523 students from 28,119 educational institutions appeared in the SSC and equivalent examinations last year. Of them 8,42,933 students were boys and 8,08,590 girls.