YANGON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's matriculation examination for the 2018-19 academic year has begun across the country with a total of 851,570 students sitting for the university entrance examination, according to the Education Ministry Thursday.
The number of exam centers totalled 1,886 with 21 based overseas and 1,865 within the country.
Of the students sitting for the exam starting Wednesday, those visually and hearing impaired and physically disabled took the exam at hospitals.
Instructors from social welfare schools were using sign language to help hearing impaired students understand the questions.
In the last 2017-18 academic year's March matriculation exam, Myanmar achieved a pass rate of 32.82 percent, declining from 33.89 percent in the 2016-17 academic year.
A total of 789,845 students sat for 2017-18 academic year's matriculation exam across the country, of whom 259,191 students passed, according to the exam result released by the Ministry of Education.
The 2017-18 academic year's matriculation exam was signified by the fact that pass rate in conflicted Maungtaw, Rakhine state doubled as compared with the previous year, increasing from 9 percent to 18.12 percent.
Students in Myanmar are set to sit for the matriculation exams before joining universities.
