Why does Bangladesh have several education boards?

A board is essentially an administrative division. Each one looks after the institutions of a set of districts — registering students, running the examinations, organising marking, publishing results and issuing certificates. Running an entire country’s examination system from one centre is not practical, so the load is divided.

The important question has a short answer: no, a certificate does not mean something different depending on the board. The national curriculum is one, the mark distribution is one, and every board’s SSC or HSC certificate is equally accepted for study and for work.

Alongside the general boards there are two specialised ones — the madrasah board and the technical board. Those are not regional but stream-based: every madrasah in the country falls under one, every technical institution under the other.

In practice you need to know which board is yours because notices, results, registration and corrections all go through it. A divisional city is not always a board city — so assuming your board matches your division can be a mistake.