SSC pass rate plunges to a 16-year low
The pass rate in this year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations across all nine general education boards has dropped to 68.04 percent, the lowest in 16 years.
The number of GPA-5 achievers also fell sharply from 1,63,845 last year to 1,25,018.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Female students continued to outperform their male counterparts in both pass rates and GPA scores. Girls have now led in pass rates for nine consecutive years and GPA-5s for eight.
Education officials attributed the 15.73 percentage point decline from last year to poor performance in mathematics, particularly among humanities students, and stricter evaluation.
At a press conference at the Dhaka Education Board, Prof Khondokar Ehsanul Kabir, president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee, said this year's results reflect the actual performance of students.
"Examiners were instructed to evaluate papers on merit. No extra or grace marks were awarded this time," he said.
"We won't comment on past events," he said, referring to the results of previous years. "This time, there was no pressure from higher authorities, and the results genuinely reflect the students' performance."
Only 984 institutions achieved a 100 percent pass rate, down from 2,968 last year, while institutions with zero pass rate rose from 51 to 134.
The combined pass rate across all boards --general, madrasa, and technical -- is 68.45 percent, down by 14.59 percentage points from last year. Across all boards, a total of 1,39,032 students achieved GPA-5, compared to 1,82,129 in 2023.
HUMANITIES STUDENTS LAG BEHIND
Across all general boards, the pass rate in the humanities group was just 53.87 percent, far below science's 85.68 percent and business studies' 66.32 percent.
In Barishal, the humanities pass rate was around 43 percent, compared to 83 percent in science.
A similar trend among humanities students' pass rate has been observed in other boards -- 42.84 percent in Mymensingh, 46.56 percent in Dinajpur, 46.77 percent in Cumilla, and 49.54 percent in Dhaka.
BARISHAL ON BOTTOM, RAJSHAHI ON TOP
Poor performance in mathematics and English dragged down Barishal Board, which posted the lowest overall pass rate among the general boards and had just 3,114 GPA-5 achievers.
Prof Md Yunus Ali Siddiqui, chairman of the Barishal Intermediate and Secondary Education Board, told The Daily Star, "This time, the examination was conducted in a completely cheating-free environment, and we strictly followed the rules at every stage. The government issued a clear directive: no leniency would be allowed in evaluating papers."
"Moreover, students performed poorly in mathematics and English, especially those from rural areas," he added.
In contrast, Rajshahi Board topped the list with a 77.63 percent pass rate. Here, the pass rate of humanities students was 66.20 percent, the highest among all boards. Rajshahi also recorded the highest pass rates in mathematics (86.52 percent) and English (93.10 percent).
The pass rates in other general education boards are: Jashore 73.69 percent, Chattogram 72.07 percent, Dhaka 67.51 percent, Cumilla 63.60 percent, Dinajpur 67.03 percent, Sylhet 68.57 percent, and Mymensingh 58.22 percent.
In terms of GPA-5 achievers, Dhaka topped the list with 37,068, followed by Rajshahi 22,327, Jashore 15,410, Dinajpur 15,062, Chattogram 11,843, Cumilla 9,902, Mymensingh 6,678, and Sylhet 3,614.
In the Dakhil exam under the Madrasa Board, 68.09 percent passed and 9,066 secured GPA-5. Among vocational students, 73.63 percent passed, with 4,948 getting GPA-5.
LOWEST SINCE 2009
An analysis of previous years' data shows that this year's 68 percent pass rate is the lowest since 2009, when it was 67 percent.
In the years between, the pass rate never fell below 80 percent, except in 2018, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics. That year, the pass rate was 79.40 percent.
The number of GPA-5 achievers is also the lowest in six years.
This year, 70.67 percent of female students passed the SSC exams, compared to 65.11 percent of male students, a difference of 5.56 percentage points. Among the total GPA-5 achievers, 66,780 are girls and 58,238 are boys.
Board officials said that students who wish to challenge their results may apply for review from July 11 to July 17. Details are available on the education boards' websites.
This year's SSC and equivalent exams began on April 10 and ended on May 13, with practical exams held from May 15 to 22. Around 19.28 lakh students registered for the exams, over one lakh fewer than last year. Of them, 19.04 lakh appeared in exams.
Of those, 14,79,310 sat under the nine general education boards, 2,86,572 under the Madrasa Board, and 1,38,204 under the Technical Board.
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