SSC Exams: Schools with zero pass rates on the rise

The number of schools and madrasas with zero pass rates in the SSC exams has more than doubled since 2015, thanks to the lack of qualified teachers, adequate infrastructures and strict government action against the poor performing institutions.

No students have passed from 107 educational institutions in the SSC exams this year, while the number was only 47 in 2015, according to the data obtained from Inter-Education Board Coordination Sub-Committee.

Number of institutions having less than 50 percent pass rate stood at 2,061 this year from 947 in the year 2015.

Education officials primarily blamed the dearth of competent teachers, especially for the subjects like English, mathematics and science, for the dismal performance of these institutions.

They also mentioned the deficiency of libraries and laboratories in these institutions as reasons behind such poor results.

“Most of these schools with unsatisfactory results do not have qualified teachers and proper infrastructure,” said Professor Abul Kalam Azad, chairman of Rajshahi Education Board.

“There are some institutions from which only a handful of students took the exam and they all failed,” he said, adding that this had increased the number of educational institutions with zero pass rates.

Board officials said they would start identifying the poor performing institutions from this year and chalk out plans to improve their performances.

According to a director of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, authorities used to serve show cause notices to the institutions having zero passes till date.

On some occasions, they cancelled academic recognition and withheld monthly pay orders (MPOs) of these institutions, he added.

“But I cannot remember whether any institution’s MPO facilities were cancelled over poor performance in the last two years” he also said.

Education Minister Dipu Moni said, “We want to take special measures so that all schools irrespective of their locations can have better performances.”

Chief of Inter-Education Board Coordination Subcommittee Ziaul Haque said from this year, they would identify the institutions that have less than 40 percent pass rates.

“We will also try to find out the number of teachers and students of these institutions” said Ziaul, also chairman of Dhaka education board.

“After that we will finalise a plan on how the performance of these educational institutions can be improved,” he said, adding that “We do not want any schools to fall behind.”