88.29% success in SSC and equivalent exams

Students in Rajshahi Education Board performed the best in SSC results with a 95.70% pass rate. But the Dhaka board had the highest number of GPA 5 achievers – 40,833. However, there was a fall in the overall number of students getting the top grade: a total 109,761 students secured GPA 5 this year, compared to 111,901 students getting the highest grade point average in 2015. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid handed over copies of the results to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday morning. Both the prime minister and the education minister expressed their happiness as students performed better than the previous year. Analysts said a return to successful trends was partly because the political situation was more conducive for education this year. In 2015, political turmoil in the form of countrywide hartal and blockades during the exam period disrupted the staging of the Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent exams. As a result, the pass rate experienced a 4.3 percentage point drop from 2014 results. This year, school authorities, guardians and students enjoyed a more relaxed preparation for the exams – which was reflected in the results. Prime Minister Hasina said there was no justification for failure when her government was providing so many facilities to students. The premier also asked students to concentrate more on studies. Addressing the media at the secretariat, Education Minister Nahid said 4,734 institutions have managed a 100% success rate, less than last year's 5,095. This year the Education Ministry did not classify schools as per merit. So the best institution in the country in terms of pass rate and GPA 5 achievers was not mentioned in the published SSC results. For the eight general education boards, the average pass rate was 88.70%, an increase of 1.98 percentage point from last year. But the average result of madrasa board saw a drop. Compared to last year's 90.20% success rate, madrasa students this year only achieved an 88.22% pass rate. The number of GPA 5 achievers also decreased. Under the technical board, 83.11% of examinees passed, compared to last year's 83.01% success rate. “We believe that school authorities and guardians had taken care of the students, which eventually helped them secure success,” Mahbubur Rahman, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, told Dhaka Tribune. This year some 1,651,523 students from 28,119 educational institutions appeared in the SSC and its equivalent examinations. Female students performed better with 88.39% pass rate than their male counterparts who managed 88.20% success. This year's SSC and equivalent exams began on February 1 and ended on March 15.