Girls, science group students continue dominance
Despite growing uncertainty in the country’s education sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh yesterday saw the highest pass rate in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams in four years.
The pass rate of 82.87% in all 11 education boards overtook the 80.35% recorded in 2017, 77.77% in 2018, and 82.20% in 2019.
However, in 2016, there was a staggering 88.29% pass rate.
For the first time in the country’s history, the results were published online only and not posted at the institutions, due to the worsening coronavirus outbreak.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled the results by videoconference from her official residence, Ganabhaban, in the morning.
Earlier, Education Minister Dipu Moni handed over a summary of the results to the prime minister online, from her secretariat office. Later, she revealed details of the results to the public and media with a briefing live streamed on Facebook.
“A total of 1,690,523 students out of 2,040,028 have successfully passed the SSC and equivalent exams this year,” she said.
According to the Education Ministry, a total of 2,047,779 students — 1,024,363 boys and 1,023,416 girls — from 28,884 educational institutions participated in this year’s SSC and equivalent exams at 3,512 centres.
Of them, 1,635,240 students took part in the SSC examinations under nine general education boards, and 281,254 in the Dakhil exam under the Madrasa Education Board. A further 131,285 appeared for vocational exams under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board.
The exams started on February 3 and continued till March 5, three days before Bangladesh reported its first three coronavirus cases.
This year’s results came out at a time when the government ruled out any possibility of reopening educational institutions soon, considering the Covid-19 situation.
The fate of this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent exams, initially scheduled to start from April, is also hanging in the balance.
The government announced on March 16 that all the educational institutions of the country will remain shut until March 31, to prevent spread of the deadly SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The closure was extended in phases, leading to uncertainty on when it would end.
Massive surge in GPA-5s
As many as 135,898 students achieved the highest possible grade point average (GPA-5) this year, as compared to 105,594 last year, government data shows. This amounts to an increase of 28.7%.
Girls outshine boys in both GPA-5 and pass rate
Of those who achieved GPA-5 this year, 65,754 are male and 70,144 are female.
833,892 boys and 856,631 girls passed the SSC and equivalent examinations under the 11 education boards, with a pass rate of 81.63% and 84.10%, respectively.
Posting an astounding 84.50% pass rate, female students also surpassed their male counterparts in the nine general education boards, with the latter achieving an 82.95% pass rate.
Last year, 53,484 female students and 52,110 male students secured GPA-5. The girls were also ahead of the boys in their pass rate, with 83.28% against 81.13%.
Science students continue at the top
Of the three groups under the nine general education boards, students of science witnessed the highest pass rate of 94.54%, about 18% higher than last year.
Students of the business studies group posted the second highest pass rate of 83.75%, which was 82.80 last year.
The humanities group brought up the rear, with 76.39% students passing the exam this year. The figure is still 2.07% higher than that recorded in 2019.
Rajshahi Board top with 90.37% pass rate
The Rajshahi Education Board has secured the top spot among the 11 education boards with a 90.37% success rate, followed by the Jessore Board with an 87.31% pass rate. The Comilla Board came in third with an 85.22% pass rate.
The pass rate of the Dhaka Board is 82.34%, while it is 79.70% for the Barisal Board, 82.73% for the Dinajpur Board, 84.75% for the Chittagong Board, 78.79% for the Sylhet Board, 80.13% for the Mymensingh Board, 82.51% for the Madrasa Board, and 72.70% for the BTEB.
100% success in 3,023 educational institutes
3,023 educational institutions across the country saw all their candidates passing the exams, compared to 2,583 institutes attaining that distinction a year ago.
Of them, 157 institutions are from Dhaka, 308 from Rajshahi, 162 from Comilla, 250 from Jessore, 50 from Chittagong, 54 from Barisal, 43 from Sylhet, 122 from Dinajpur, 21 from Mymensingh, while 1756 are under the Madrasa Board and 100 under the BTEB.
Nobody passed at 104 institutes, as compared to 107 last year. UNB
