All coaching centres will remain closed for 21 days from September 15 ahead of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations, said Education Minister Dipu Moni on Monday.

"The SCC exams will begin from September 15. To prevent question paper leakage, all coaching centres across the country will remain closed from September 15-October 2."

Minister Dipu Moni told reporters after a meeting with the National Monitoring and Law and Order Committee for ensuring smooth environment for the upcoming SSC exams at the Secretariat.

The examinations will begin at 11 am this year instead of 10 am considering the traffic jam, she added.

Earlier, the SSC and equivalent exams were postponed due to floods in Sylhet and the northern regions of Bangladesh.

This year, the examinations will be held for two hours instead of three hours, Dipu Moni said adding the duration of the MCQ exam is 20 minutes while that of the written exam is 1 hour and 40 minutes.

All examinees have been asked to enter their exam halls 30 minutes before the starting time and no one except the exam secretary will be allowed to carry cellular phone.

According to the schedule, the SSC examinations will end on October 18.

Some 20,21,868 students are expected to take the SSC and equivalent exams this year while last year this number was 22,43,254. The number of candidates has decreased by 2,21,386.

About 15,99,711 candidates will sit for the SSC exam under nine general education boards, 2,68,495 for Dakhil exams under Madrasa Education Board and 1,53,662 for vocational exam under Bangladesh Technical Education Board this year, the minister said.