With a lower pass rate compared to the previous year, the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations of 2015 saw a total of 87.04% of examinees come through successfully.
The success rate has dropped 4.30% from 91.34% of last year.
The total number of highest Grade Point Average (GPA 5) also declined with 111,901 examinees securing GPA 5 this year. The number was 142,276 in 2014.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and the chairpersons of the education boards handed over the result to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Gonobhaban at 10am yesterday.
Sheikh Hasina blamed the non-stop blockade and intermittent strikes enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance for the low pass rate this year.
“The pass rate would have been higher if we did not have to reschedule the exams due to the BNP-Jamaat’s countrywide blockade and shut down,” she added.
Later the minister shared the details of the result at a media conference at the Secretariat at 1pm.
Of the nearly 1.5 million students that appeared for the SSC, madrasa and technical exams this year, a total of 1,282,618 have passed in all the education boards.
According to the education minister’s press briefing, only 5,095 institutions have managed 100% success rate.
The average pass rate in the eight general education boards is 86.72%, which was 92.67% last year.
However, the madrasa and the technical boards saw a slight rise in the pass rate.
In madrasa board the success rate is 90.20% compared to last year’s 89.25%. Besides, 83.01% of examinees under the technical board succeeded this year while the figure was 81.97% last year.
Syed Manzoorul Islam, professor of Dhaka University also cited the frequent schedule change for the low pass rate. “The violent political situation and the rescheduling of exams had an impact on the students’ psyche.”
“Moreover, students, especially from the rural areas, are facing trouble to adopt to the new creative curriculum due to a lack of trained teachers,” he added further saying that the coaching system was also having a detrimental effect on the quality of education.
Echoing the same sentiment, Hamida Ali, principal of South Point School and College underscored the need for comprehensive training for the teachers. She however did not believe that the strikes and blockades had a bigger impact on the pass rate.
As per the result data, Rajshahi Education Board secured the top place among all the education boards with a pass rate of 94.97%.
However, the Dhaka board has the highest number of GPA 5 achievers, which is 36,801.
Among the schools, Shamsul Hoque Khan School and College of Dhaka’s Demra area secured the best position in the country in terms of pass rate and GPA 5 winners. Rajuk Uttara Model College, which was last year’s best school, came second this year.
Out of the ten best educational institutes, six are under Dhaka Education Board.
The SSC and equivalent exams of 2015 were scheduled to begin on February 1 but had to be deferred twice – first to February 4 and then to February 6 – because of the political disruption.
All the exams were held on weekly holidays resulting in the written exams to end on April 3, almost a month behind the scheduled time.
