Students staged rallies and demonstration marches at several major university campuses across Bangladesh on Tuesday, protesting a government decision to increase the marks allocated to viva voce examinations for Grade 11-20 government jobs.
Student groups and job aspirants are demanding the immediate withdrawal of the proposal to increase viva marks and lower written pass marks. They also called for a transparent and accountable viva process based on standardised evaluation criteria with mandatory video recording, as well as a clear security roadmap to prevent proxy test-takers and digital cheating without changing the existing mark distribution.
Demonstrations were held at Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University, Noakhali Science and Technology University and Islamic University. Student groups across the country have announced further protest programmes for Wednesday.
Leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP), along with student organisations, have criticised the decision, saying it could lead to the return of “politicisation, lobbying and nepotism” in public sector recruitment.
The proposal, approved by the Secretary Committee on Administrative Development, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, has not yet been gazetted.
For Grades 11–12, viva marks would rise from 10 to 50, while written marks would increase from 90 to 100 and the written pass mark would fall from 50% to 35%.
For Grades 13–16, viva marks would increase from 10 to 40, while written marks would fall from 90 to 60 and the pass mark from 50% to 40%. For Grades 17–20, viva marks would rise from 10 to 25, while written marks would drop from 40 to 25.
The Ministry of Public Administration says the changes are aimed at preventing proxy examinations and digital fraud. However, critics have raised concerns as Grade 11–20 positions account for roughly 1.32 million of the country’s 2 million civil service posts.
Opposition leaders from the NCP and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have rejected the proposal.
NCP Convener Nahid Islam said viva assessments are more subjective than written examinations and that increasing their weightage could create greater scope for bias and political interference. He called for standardised criteria and accountability.
NCP Chief Organiser (South) Hasnat Abdullah described the move as “disastrous”, saying it could encourage lobbying, favouritism and political influence. NCP Chief Organiser (North) Sarjis Alam also said the proposal could return public recruitment to a system where political considerations determine outcomes at the viva stage.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, opposition MP Shafiqul Islam Masud, who is also Dhaka South Secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami, said equalising written and viva marks was intended to facilitate political recruitment in public services. He said the BNP-led administration was moving towards a quota-based system instead of a merit-based one.
JCD leader Tanvir Bari Hamim also expressed concern that the move could revive financial and political corruption in public recruitment and urged policymakers to reconsider it.
Defending the initiative, Prime Minister’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman said the move was aimed at improving recruitment quality. He argued that oral examinations can better assess a candidate’s aptitude and talent, while acknowledging that their subjective nature carries a risk of manipulation or favouritism.
Professor Dr Abdus Salam of Dhaka University’s Institute of Education and Research said, “The assessment methods used in job examinations in Bangladesh are not yet internationally standardised. This has left us with a number of problems.”
He also warned that increasing viva weightage could create greater scope for bias, saying, “Under the proposed system, there will still be considerable scope to favour particular candidates during the viva.”
Habibur Rahman, a Supreme Court lawyer, said viva examinations lack a fixed syllabus and therefore depend heavily on board members’ personal preferences, creating scope for harassment and corruption. He advocated limiting viva marks to a maximum of 10% to assess basic presentation and communication skills, while leaving academic competence to written examinations.