Analysis of this year's Higher Secondary Certificate exam results revealed that students continued to score badly in English, with the subject managing the second lowest pass rate in most of the education boards.
English language was just above chemistry at the bottom of the results table. Educationist Serajul Islam Choudhury blamed inadequate and unskilled teachers for the poor performance in English.
He said in many colleges, particularly in the rural areas, there were not enough English language teachers, compared to the large number of students.
"There are also questions about the quality of the teachers who teach English in the educational institutions," Choudhury said.
Only Jessore and Chittagong boards saw slight improvements in the pass rate for the subject. In Jessore, 74.98% of examinees passed English, compared to 72.67% last year. The pass rate was 82.69% in Chittagong, compared to 80.53% of the previous year.
Although Sylhet enjoyed the highest pass rate in English with 89.39%, the figure was lower than last year's 91.08%.
In Rajshahi, 85.10% passed the subject this year, whereas last year, the rate was 87.78%. In Dhaka, 82.30% passed, compared to 87.43% last year. In Comilla, 75.06%, compared to 87.16% last year. In Dinajpur, 82.25% passed, compared to last year's 83.86%.
