Higher Secondary School Certificate
The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) is a public examination credential in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. HSC is equivalent to GCE A Level in England and 3rd and 4th year of high schools in the United States.

Bangladesh

After 10 years of schooling at the primary and secondary level, maybe years of passing students (16+) who succeed in passing the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination have the option of joining a college for a two-year higher secondary education in respective areas of specialization or enrolling in a technical or polytechnic institute. After the two-year higher secondary education based on the national curriculum, one has to sit for the public examination called the Higher Secondary Certificate examination conducted by the education boards.

Students of Islamic religious and English medium streams also sit for their respective public examinations, Alim and A-Level, conducted by the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board and London/Cambridge University to qualify for further education. Every year, the HSC exam usually starts in April in Bangladesh, and the routine gets published two months before the examination.

There are nine Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education responsible for conducting the public examinations also responsible for recognizing the private educational institutes.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a lot of speculation and considerations, the concerned authority decided not to arrange a Higher Secondary Certificate or equivalent examination for the year 2020. Results from two prior exams, JSC and SSC, were averaged and used as the score.

Pakistan

The Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), also known as Intermediate, is a public examination taken by the students of Higher Secondary School or Intermediate college (Junior college) in Pakistan. After finishing Matriculation in Grade 9 and 10, the students then enter an intermediate college and complete grades 11 and 12. Upon completion of each of the two grades, they again take standardized tests in their academic subjects. They are offered by provincial boards at provincial level and by FBISE at the federal level. Upon successful completion of these examinations, students are awarded the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC). This level of education is also called the FSc/FA/ICS. There are many streams students can choose for their 11 and 12 grades, such as pre-medical, pre-engineering, humanities (or social sciences), computer science and commerce. Each stream consists of three electives and as well as three compulsory subjects of English, Urdu, Islamiyat (grade 11 only) and Pakistan Studies (grade 12 only).

India
In India, HSC/Intermediate, PUC and PDC is known as 12th class (also known as +2) exam which is conducted at the state level by the state boards of education like (Maharashtra board, MP board, West Bengal board, Odia board, Bihar board & many others) and at the national level by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), Board of Open Schooling and Skill Education, Sikkim (BOSSE) and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). CBSE conducts this once a year, NIOS conducts this twice a year in public examinations with an option of on-demand examinations. On the other hand, the 10th class exam which is also conducted at state level by the state boards of education and at the national level by the Central Board of Secondary Education and in India this exam is known as SSC exam. There are total 6 subjects in HSC exam which are different for different State Board but common in case of Central Board of Secondary Education.

References

Further reading
 Mohsin Bashir, and Shoaib Ul-Haq, "Why madrassah education reforms don't work in Pakistan." Third World Quarterly (2019) 40#3 pp. 595–611.
 Muhammad Qasim Zaman, "Religious education and the rhetoric of reform: The madrasa in British India and Pakistan." Comparative Studies in Society and History 41.2 (1999): 294–323 online.

Secondary education in Bangladesh
School qualifications of India
Education in Nepal
School qualifications of Pakistan
Secondary school qualifications