A record percentage of students have passed this year’s Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations, while the number of GPA 5 scorers has also increased than the previous years.
This year, the pass rate was 91.34%, a 2.31 percentage point increase than the previous year, and 142,276 students got GPA 5, which was 51,050 more than the previous year.
Explaining the reasons behind the better success rate, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the results were achieved because of the introduction of creative question system and properly training the teachers on the new system.
This year, students faced creative question system on 21 subjects, while Nahid said some five lakh teachers were trained on the new system.
Pointing out another government initiative, Nahid said: “After analysing results of previous years, we have found that students are mainly weak in English and Mathematics. So we had arranged additional classes on the two subjects and the initiative proved successful.”
The SSC results also reflected Nahid’s claim, with 98.88% students passing in English and 98% in Mathematics in Dhaka Education Board, while in Jessore Board, 99.43% passed in English and 97.22% in Mathematics.
The education minister further claimed that multimedia class rooms, regular classes and timely distribution of textbooks also contributed to the good results.
Although many school teachers agreed with the government’s claims, they also gave a different set of reasons for the record pass rates and GPA 5 scorers.
Seeking anonymity, several examiners from top-rated schools in the capital’s Bailey Road Dhanmondi, and Mirpur areas told the Dhaka Tribune that they were instructed to check scripts “liberally.”
“We were asked to check the script as liberally as we can,” said an examiner and teacher of a leading school in the capital.
However, Fahima Khatun, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, denied the allegation.
“Normally, if a student has one or two marks short of the pass marks, we tell teachers to consider so that the student does not fail. This is nothing new. It has always been a norm. No other instruction was given except that,” she said.
Dhaka Board Chairperson Taslima Begum also denied giving any such instruction.
Teachers from the rural areas, on the other hand, said they were told that their schools’ Monthly Pay Order scheme would be cancelled if a large number of their students failed in the SSC exams.
Some teachers and guardians also claimed that incidents of questions being leaked might also have given unscrupulous students a wrongful advantage, contributing to the improved results.
Prior to the exams of some subjects this year, their questions allegedly became available on facebook and other social media sites.
When asked about the allegations of question leak, the education minister, however, denied it.
Nurul Islam Nahid handed over the result to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the morning, before formally announcing the result at the secretariat in the afternoon. Students crowded their respective schools following the formal announcement.
Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, also agreed with the government’s claim that creative question papers played the leading role in better pass rate, adding that school facilities had also improved.
Among the eight general education boards, Sylhet Board had the lowest pass rate of 89.23%, while the highest pass rate was 96.34% in Rajshahi.
The pass rate was better in general education system than madrasa or vocational education system. It was 92.67% in general system, 89.25% in madrasa, and 81.97% in vocational education.
Male students fared better than females; the pass rate among males was 91.84% and 77,551 got GPA 5, while pass rate among females was 90.81% and 64,725 got GPA 5.
This year’s examinations were held between February 9 and March 20.