Student protests demanding the resignation of Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon continued on Wednesday, despite his apology for allegedly calling students “farm chickens.”
The unrest, also fuelled by anger over HSC examinations being held during severe weather, entered its second day with road blockades and marches paralysing Dhaka and elsewhere. However, deep divisions have emerged within the movement.
Following talks at the Secretariat, one faction dropped the resignation demand, presenting a six-point charter. Meanwhile, another group rejected this compromise entirely, blocking the Shahbagh intersection to renew calls for the minister’s immediate departure.
The protests severely disrupted traffic as students blocked key routes, including Science Laboratory, Uttara’s BNS Centre, and the Dhaka-Aricha Highway.
Demonstrators marched towards Parliament Building and the Education Ministry, causing major delays for commuters and transport operators.
Addressing parliament for a second day, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon announced that students unable to sit Monday’s exams due to adverse weather would be given another opportunity to sit them.
The breakaway faction’s six demands focus heavily on exam fairness, urging the government to guarantee retest opportunities for affected students, record the higher score between the original exam and the retest, and award full marks for erroneous exam questions.
They are also calling for adequate preparation time before rescheduled exams, lenient grading that accounts for sudden changes in question patterns, and an end to unreasonable behaviour by invigilators at examination centres.
Confusion over next steps
Confusion has gripped the protesters over their next steps following a series of shifting demands and conflicting schedules.
The protests initially began with three core demands: suspending HSC exams during severe flooding, allowing retests for students who missed the 13 July exams due to bad weather, and the immediate resignation of the education minister.
This sparked nationwide road blockades and demonstrations outside education boards.
By Wednesday evening, coordination broke down further.
After announcing and then abruptly withdrawing a blockade at Shahbagh, protesters split. One group threatened to block Science Laboratory from noon on Thursday unless the minister resigns. Confusion looms over Thursday’s plans, with factions divided between a 10am rally at Shahbagh and a midday protest at Science Laboratory.
Public suffers from blockades
The student protests caused severe traffic congestion across major parts of Dhaka, leaving commuters stranded for hours. The blockade at Uttara’s BNS Centre triggered gridlock stretching to the airport, leaving bus passengers frustrated by the recurring disruption.
At the Shahbagh intersection, pedestrians noted that while students have a right to raise demands, blocking roads causes immense suffering for ordinary people.
Many officegoers and relatives accompanying patients faced extreme difficulties returning home, with some areas seeing heated arguments break out between protesters and the public.
Furthermore, transport workers reported that the prolonged blockades drastically reduced their daily trips, resulting in significant financial losses.
Minister promises retest opportunity
Amid ongoing protests, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon addressed Parliament under Rule 300 on Wednesday, announcing a special retest opportunity. He confirmed that students unable to sit any subject of the ongoing 2026 HSC and equivalent examinations due to adverse weather or unavoidable circumstances would be allowed to take a retest.
The minister explained that these retests would utilise the same question papers already postponed by the Chattogram Education Board, with dates to be scheduled by the Ministry of Education. “Since the HSC examination is an extremely important stage in students’ lives, this special opportunity has been provided after special consideration,” he said.
He added that 1,270,583 candidates are sitting the exams across 2,697 centres nationwide.
Addressing errors in the Physics First Paper, Milon announced the temporary suspension of the question setters. He assured students that full marks would be awarded for the mistakes in questions 6 and 7.
The minister also addressed accusations regarding an audio clip circulating on Facebook, in which he allegedly referred to students as “farm chickens”. Having previously told Parliament he did not make the remark to target anyone, Milon offered his apologies if his comments had caused any hurt.
