Combined pass rate in Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations fell to its 10-year low while the number of Grade Point Average (GPA) 5 achievers came down to its seven-year low.
The results, published on Sunday, also showed that the number of institutions with 100 per cent pass rate fell to seven-year low while the number of institutes having no examinees passed increased to seven-year high.
Students of general, madrassah and technical streams performed poorly this year as the pass rate decreased by 5.63 percentage points in HSC exams under eight education boards, 11.17 percentage points in Alim exams under madrassah education
board and 3.24 percentage points in HSC vocational exams under technical education board in comparison to the results in 2016.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid at a briefing on the results blamed new answer script evaluation system for the poor results.
Board chairmen and officials, however, said that besides new answer script evaluation system, poor performances of the students of humanities group and Comilla education board and bad scores in English and others subjects caused the poor results.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, after receiving the results from Nurul Islam Nahid, described the results as overall good.
‘The percentage of pass in this year’s [HSC] exams may be less to some extent but we have modernised the education and given highest attention to its standard … importance has been given to all matters including examining answer scripts so that future generations could advance keeping pace with the time,’ she said.
She said that her government gave highest attention to enhancing the quality of education.
Hasina, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the HSC results of Comilla Board. ‘Why they will trail in results … special attention should be given to this end,’ she said.
At the briefing, Nahid said that 8,01,711 of the 11,63,370 examinees passed the combined HSC and equivalent examinations this year.
The combined pass rate stood at 69.91 per cent, a 5.79 percentage-point decrease from 74.70 per cent in 2016.
Combined pass rate was 76.19 per cent in 2008, 72.78 per cent in 2009, 74.28 per cent in 2010, 75.08 per cent in 2011, 78.67 per cent in 2012, 74.30 per cent in 2013, 78.32 per cent in 2014 and 69.60 per cent in 2015.
According to the results, 37,969 students achieved highest GPA 5, a decrease by 20,307 from 58,276 in 2016.
The number of GPA 5 achievers was 39,769 in 2011, 61,162 in 2012, 58,197 in 2013, 70,602 in 2014 and 42,894 in 2015.
The number of institutions with 100 per cent pass rate decreased to 532 from 848 in 2016. All students passed from 892 institutions in 2011, 1,036 in 2012, 849 in 2013, 1,147 in 2014 and 1,133 in 2015.
No students passed from 75 educational institutions this year, a threefold increase from 25 in 2016. The number was 35 in 2015, 24 in 2014, 25 in 2013 and 24 in 2012 and 24 2011.
For the fourth year in a row, girls did better than boys in pass rate while boys did better than girls in securing GPA 5.
In the HSC exam under eight general education boards, 66.84 per cent of 9. 64 lakh general students passed the exam, 5.63 percentage points decrease from 72.47 per cent in 2016.
This year, 33,242 students secured GPA 5, decrease by 15,708 from 48,950 in 2016.
The success rate was 83.14 per cent for science, 69.65 per cent for business studies and 58.14 per cent for humanities group.
The highest pass rate was 72 per cent in Rajshahi board and the lowest was 49.52 per cent in Comilla board.
Under the madrassah education board, 77.02 per cent of 96,802 students passed the exam, 11.17 percentage points decrease from 88.19 per cent in 2016.
Under the technical education board, 81.33 per cent of 97,014 students passed the exam, 3.24 percentage point lower than 84.57 per cent in 2016.
The number of GPA 5 achievers was 1,815 for madrassah and 2,669 for technical students.
Nahid blamed new answer script evaluation system for the poor results. He said that the government was not surprised by the fall of results.
‘Earlier on many occasions, teachers did not evaluate answer scripts attentively so they used to over or under mark a script. So, we introduced standardisation of answer script evaluation system in public examinations with a view to ensure an accurate evaluation,’ he said.
The ministry also imparted training to the head examiners and other examiners on evaluation of answer scripts as per model answers provided to them, he said.
In the new system, examiners were provided with model answers and a mark scheme to check the papers, following a research conducted by Bangladesh Examination Development Unit.
Inter-education board coordination subcommittee chairman Mahbubur Rahman, also the Dhaka education board chairman, and Jessore education board chairman Abdul Alim said that poor performance of of students of Comilla education board and humanities group and bad scores in English badly affected the combined results.
This year, pass rate for Comilla board stood at 49.53 per cent, a 14.97 percentage-point decrease from 64.49 per cent in 2016.
This year, 58.14 per cent humanities students passed the exam which was 67.37 per cent in 2016.
Comilla education board chairman Abdul Khaleque primarily blamed poor performance in humanities group and English for the result poor results. The rate of failure was 62 per cent in humanities group and 38 per cent in English.
Report: The New Age
