This year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations saw the lowest pass rate in 17 years.
Of the total 1,928,970 examinees, some 68.45 percent of students passed this year, and about 139,032 students have secured a GPA-5. The pass rate has dropped by 14.5 percent compared to last year. Meanwhile, the number of students achieving GPA-5 also saw a downtrend.
The results published on Thursday (July 10) revealed these findings.
This year's SSC and equivalent exams started on April 10.
After the result was published, it triggered widespread debate among the authorities of the Education board, education experts and parents.
The fear of Mathematics
Poor performance in mathematics has been one of the main reasons why students couldn't attain a satisfactory result in this year's exam.
Around 23 percent of students got an F in math.
Failure rates were high among the students in the humanities (46 percent) and business studies (34 percent) groups.
During the tenure of the toppled Awami League government, there were recurring allegations of deliberately tempering public exam results.
Many believe the current interim government has decided not to follow the trend of giving additional marks to promote students or to increase the passing rates.
What the authorities are saying
Muhammad Azad Khan, director general of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education, told Dhaka Stream, "Students have received correct evaluation in line with their true merit and learning ability."
"They will now be aware of their actual standing. Even the nation will be able to formulate a baseline for the quality of our education. From this point on, we can begin our journey of improving our education."
In a press briefing on Thursday, Professor Khondokar Ehsanul Kabir, chairman of the Dhaka Education Board and President of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee, stated that no additional marks were awarded in this year's SSC and equivalent exams.
"We made every effort possible to evaluate students based on their merit. Examiners were also instructed accordingly," he said.
He added that we have presented the results exactly as they emerged from the proper evaluation of answer scripts. We won't comment on what happened in the past or how results were prepared back then. What we've released now is the real picture.
Disrupted academic year
Last year was marked by intense political unrest as students took to the streets to join the July Uprising. Classes at educational institutions were disrupted at that time.
This year's SSC candidates witnessed last year's July-August uprising, and they also led from the front many times.
They were also the victims of legal crackdowns and repression during the July Movement. Many of them lost their lives, and many others were wounded.
Parents believe these events had affected the studies and, consequently, brought this result.
Commenting on this situation, Salimullah Khan, the country's leading educationist, said, "By saying that no grace marks were given this time, they have admitted that grace marks were given in the past."
"Grace mark is a disgrace.' The entire education system must be held accountable for this. Even a single failure in the exam has to be accounted for. One cannot explain such poor results by ignoring factors like class size, the quality of teachers, and the structural inequality in our education system.
Comments