A record number of 17,276 examinees in Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Dakhil and SSC (Vocational) examinations have scored the highest grade point average (GPA) 5 this year compared to 9,886 last year and 1,392 in 2003.

The letter-grading system was introduced in the SSC-level public examinations in 2002 when only 330 examinees secured GPA 5.

Viqarunnisa Noon School fetched the highest number of 464 GPA-5s, followed by Ideal School and College finished with 452. Motijheel Model High School bagged 180 GPA-5s, Monipur High School 179, Rajuk Uttara Model School and College 156 and Government Laboratory High School 148.

The SSC exams are held simultaneously under seven mainstream secondary and higher secondary education boards, Dakhil tests under Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board and SSC Vocational exams under Technical Education Board.

This year, students under Jessore Education Board achieved the highest pass percentage of 69.19, followed by Chittagong with 60.92, Comilla 55.89, Dhaka 52.85, Sylhet 48.47, Barisal 43.41 and Rajshahi 43.13 percent.

A total of 751,421 examinees sat for this year's SSC examinations -- 218,674 of them under Dhaka board, 204,137 under Rajshahi board, 101,573 under Comilla board, 101,573 under Jessore board, 58,319 under Chittagong board, 52,316 under Barisal board and 29,459 under Sylhet board.

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

The prime minister, reportedly satisfied with the results, urged the teachers and guardians to work with more sincerity to help continue the trend of her government's success in the education sector.

Khaleda said her government attaches the highest priority to education, as investments in the sector always yields more dividend.

GPA-5 galore on new system The introduction of the new system of calculating marks last year has been put down by teachers to students scoring the higher number of grade point average (GPA) 5 this year.

Dhaka's top 10 schools Ten schools under Dhaka education board have been graded as best institutions on the basis of 100 percent pass rate in this year's SSC examinations.