Combined pass percentage in Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations fell to its eight-year low while the number of Grade Point Average (GPA) 5 achievers came down to its four-year low.
The results of the examinations, published on Sunday, also showed that the number of institutions with 100 per cent pass rate decreased to 1,133 from 1,147 of the past year.No students passed from 35 educational institutions this year, increased from 24 in 2014.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and education minister Nurul Islam Nahid blamed general strike enforced by the opposition parties during the exams for the set-back in results.
Board chairmen and officials, however, told New Age that tough scrutiny of exam papers, question setting procedure and pattern change in creative system, bad scores in Bangla and English subjects this year affected the results.
HSC and equivalent exams were interrupted by general strikes and blockades enforced by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance.
The education minister announced the results at a press conference at the ministry about 1:00pm. Earlier in the morning, he handed over the results of all boards to the prime minister.
Hasina said, ‘The examinees faced serious trouble during the exams due to hartal and blockade. Otherwise, the overall results would have been much better.’
This year combined pass rate was 69.60, while it was 78.33 per cent in 2014, 74.30 per cent in 2013, 78.67 per cent in 2012, 75.08 per cent in 2011, 74.28 per cent in 2010, 72.78 per cent in 2009 and 76.19 per cent in 2008.
This year a total of 42,894 students had earned GPA 5, from all 10 education boards, the figure was 70,602 in 2014, 58,197 in 2013 and 61,162 in 2012.
Students of both general and madrassha boards performed poorly this year as the pass rate in HSC exams under eight education boards decreased by 9.9 percentage points, while in Alim exams under madrassah board it decreased by 3.89 percentage points in comparison with last year’s results.
Results show that 65.84 per cent of general students and 90.19 per cent madrassah students passed this year, which was seven-year low for general boards. In 2009, 70.43 per cent general students passed the exams.
A total of 7,38,872 students out of 10,61,614 sat the HSC and equivalent examinations passed the exams — 5,77,087 out of 8,76,476 under eight general education boards, 84,125 out of 98,296 under the Technical Education Board and 74,461 out of 82,558 under the Madrassah Education Board.
For the third year in a row, girls did better than boys in terms of pass percentage. The pass rate is 70.23 per cent for girls and 69.04 per cent for boys, while 19,601 girls and 23,293 boys scored GPA 5.
The success rate of the science students is 77.66 per cent, of business studies students 71.93 per cent while it is 57.99 per cent for the humanities group.
The Rajshahi education board had the highest pass rate of 77.54 per cent and Jessore the lowest of 46.45 per cent.
In Dhaka education board pass rate was 68.16 per cent, in Comilla 59.80, Chittagong 63.49, Barisal 70.06, Sylhet 74.75 and Dinajpur 70.43 per cent.
Some education officials and teachers, meanwhile, said result debacle in Bangla and English was responsible for the low pass percentage.
In Dhaka board, this year 79 per cent students passed English while 92 per cent passed the subject in 2014. Similarly, in Jessore board 51 per cent students passed English exam this year while 65 per cent passed the subject in 2014.
On the other hand, in Dhaka board 95 per cent students passed Bangla this year against 97 per cent in 2014, in Jessore board 91 per cent passed the subject this year against 96 per cent in 2014.
Moreover, lesser number of students under Dhaka and Jessore board have passed subjects like physics, chemistry, accounting and civics while the position of others boards is more or less similar, as per the inter-education coordination committee data.
At least three education board chairmen said that tough scrutiny of exam papers, question setting procedure and pattern change in creative system evaluation dragged pass percentage down.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid said there were some problems regarding creative system evaluation but teachers nowadays could evaluate more accurately than before.
-With New Age input
