A record number, 9,886 examinees in Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Dakhil and SSC (Vocational) exams, have scored the highest grade point average (GPA) 5 this year, compared to only 1,392 last year and merely 330 in 2002, when the letter-grading system was introduced in these SSC-level public examinations.

In bagging GPA-5, Viqarunnisa Noon School came out first with as many as 421 examinees scoring the highest grade, Ideal School and College finished second with 302, followed by Government Laboratory High School with 148, and Dr Khastagir Government Girls' High School and Collegiate School of Chittagong with 141.

The boys with a 52.82-percent overall success rate have gained upon the girls who have 46.99-percent pass rate.

SSC examinations are held simultaneously by the seven mainstream secondary and higher secondary education boards, Dakhil under Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board and SSC Vocational under Technical Education Board.

The average pass percentage in SSC examination under the seven education boards is 48.02, with boys securing 49.71 pass percentage and girls 45.71.

This year, students under Comilla board achieved the highest pass percentage of 58.18, followed by Jessore at 54.59, Sylhet at 52.49, Barisal at 47.56, Chittagong at 46.55, Rajshahi at 45.52 and Dhaka at 43.30.

In the mainstream secondary education, 363,270 out of 756,387 students who sat the exams in March last have come out successful.

The number of SSC examinees was 223,571 under Dhaka board, 207,003 under Rajshahi, 85,131 under Comilla, 105,473 under Jessore, 55,591 under Chittagong, 51,446 under Barisal and 28,172 under Sylhet.

In Vocational SSC exams, the pass percentage this year is 51.16, which registers a 12.14-percent rise from 38.92 percent of last year.

In the traditional Islamic education system, 59.74 percent examinees managed to cross the Dakhil exams this year, boosting the percentage by 17.87 point up from 41.87 of last year.

In total, 16,090 out of 31,452 examinees under the Technical Education Board and 105,533 out of 176,668 examinees under the Madrasa board have made it this year.

In technical and madrasa exams, too, boys have outdone the girls. In Vocational SSC the pass percentage of boys is 52.34 and of girls 48.53, while in Dakhil 64.91 percent boys have secured pass-marks compared to 51.74 percent girls.

Education Minister Osman Farruk and State Minister for Education ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon, accompanied by the education secretary and the chairmen of the country's nine education boards, handed the result sheets over to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her office yesterday.

Expressing her satisfaction over this year's SSC-level examination results, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia urged the teachers and all concerned to ensure quality education and help reach its benefits to people of all strata.

Khaleda said her government has attached the topmost priority to education, which she says is reflected in the highest budgetary allocation of Tk 7,600 crore made for education sector in the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The allocation is about Tk 950 crore more than the current year, she observed.

Elaborating on the priority, the prime minister mentioned an ongoing six-year project at the cost of about Tk 5,000 crore for development of primary education.

She also referred to a 'special' six-year Tk 400-crore programme incorporated in the proposed budget for 2004-05 which aims at reaching education to the children who are deprived of normal schooling. The 'special' programme would benefit about 20 lakh people, she added.

Reflecting on the exam results, Education Minister Osman Farruk said the average pass percentage is better this year as the ministry had asked schools to register only those candidates who pass the tests. Following the step, the number of examinees declined this year, he noted.

"This year only studious boys and girls who were confident to pass sat for the exam," the minister maintained. He claimed the success is also partly due to the awareness that no-one would pass without diligent study created by the awareness raising campaign his ministry had launched against cheating in exams.