SSC results: some thoughts
Md. Masum Billah, BRAC Head Office, Dhaka
This year's first and largest public examination results have been published, showing a pass percentage of 59.04 against 52.57 last year. The average pass rate of SSC, SSC Vocational and Dakhil examinations stands at 62.22 percent. This year the result came out in less than three months' time. The boards took only seventy-six days to publish the results. That bears a good sign. A record number of 24, 384 examinees obtained the highest GPA-5 compared to 17,276 examinees last year. This grading system was introduced in the country's SSC level examinations in 2000 when only 330 examinees secured GPA-5. It is an indication that most of the students, guardians and even the teachers could not gather a clear idea about the grading system. As a result, many bright students had to pay a high price. Our education system has got almost used to it by this time. The Chittagong Education Board achieved the highest pass percentage of 63.57 which is followed by Comilla Education Board with 63.45 and Jessore Board showed the lowest pass percentage with 48.10%. A total number of 995,123 examinees appeared in the examinations under seven Education Boards of which 619,186 came out successful. The results show some common features as it happens every year. Like the previous year, schools in urban areas particularly those in the metropolitan cities dominated in the GPA- 5 category. Among the top ten GPA-5 securing schools six are in the capital city, two in Chittagong and two in Comilla. The highest 591 students of Viqarunnessa Noon secured GPA -5 followed by Ideal School and College with 525 achieving the same grade point. This is a serious aspect, which calls for every conscious citizen's attention. The pictures of the brilliant faces appeared in the newspapers and on TV screens. Newsmen took their interviews. Then I thought millions of rural talents remained far away from this process. Their talents and hidden treasures remained undiscovered, unexplored and unknown. Who will make them known to the society? When will their talent and potentials be brought to light and utilised for the nation? The rural students cannot afford to have the needed facilities and they lag behind in the race. Should we allow it to continue? No examinee from 217 of 24, 972 institutions across the country could pass. Last year no student passed from 407 schools. How is it that not a single student came out successful from these schools? What a great national loss!. All these institutions are located in villages. What a serious disparity we have created in our educational arena! Adoption of unfair means in the examinations plagued our education system for long. The pragmatic initiative of our Ministry of Education has almost eliminated this deep-rooted disease. So, some other steps can be taken to narrow the gap between rural and urban education. The facilities of education must be decentralised. The rural schools should be nationalised so that the students can have better teachers and get better education. The urban and city guardians can buy education through different ways and channels. The poor guardians of the rural areas cannot afford to buy it. So only the government can ensure better education for them through bringing the schools under the public sector. Extensive training facilities must be provided so that teachers can impart quality teaching to the rural students. We cannot expect to go ahead showing this evasive attitude towards the neglected section who constitute the vast majority. Changing their lot will mean a positive change for the country. This truth must be understood by all of us.
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