On the first day of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations in Chattogram, seven visually impaired students were unable to sit for the exams due to the absence of scribes.

The school authorities claimed the proper procedure was not followed, which was why the scribes were not approved.

The seven visually impaired students are Habibul Haque Ratul, Minhaz Uddin, Marufur Rahman, Rupsa Khanom, Apu Dutta, Lucky Akter, and Khairul Islam.

All of them are students of Rahmania High School in the Hamzarbagh area of Chattogram city. Their examination centre was at Bangladesh Mahila Samiti Girls' High School in the WASA intersection area.

An education board official explained that the policy regarding the appointment of scribes clearly states that for SSC exams, a scribe must be a student of no more than class eight and below 18 years of age. However, the visually impaired students had chosen scribes who were either higher secondary or university level students. As a result, the school did not approve them before the exam.

Md Jasim, a guardian, said, "We were unaware that scribes must be from class eight or below. My wife and elder son regularly visited the school but the authorities did not inform them in advance. At the last moment, they cited the policy and left us in a difficult situation."

Asked, Zeebun Nesha Khanom, acting headteacher of Rahmania High School, said, "They [the guardians] had been telling us for a week that they arranged class eight students as scribes. But they never presented them to us. Despite repeated requests, they didn't bring the scribes. In the end, they brought college students claiming they were from class eight. Upon verification, I found they were college students, so I didn't approve them.

"I waited until 9:00pm last night, but they still couldn't bring class eight students. We contacted the board, and they said nothing can be done beyond the policy."

She added, "These seven are our students. But we cannot act outside the rules."

Contacted, Chattogram Education Board Exam Controller Professor Parvez Sajjad Chowdhury said, "Some of the proposed scribes were higher secondary students. We cannot approve anything outside the policy. There were also issues with the verification from the guardians and school authorities."