HSC pass rate drops, number of GPA-5 rises

Though students did not have to sit for nearly half of the exams, the pass rate for this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate still saw a slight drop.
As many of the tests were not held following the demands of a section of examinees, the results of those were based on the students’ SSC performances.
According to the results published by the boards yesterday, the pass rate of the candidates under nine general education boards has dropped from last year’s 75.90 to 75.56 this year.
Due to unforeseen circumstances this year, students of eight boards sat for only seven exams out of 13, while those in Sylhet were able to sit for only three, said Prof Tapan Kumar Sarkar, chairman of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee.
The exams began on June 30 and were supposed to continue till August 21. In Sylhet, they began on July 9 as the region was reeling from floods.
After seven tests were taken elsewhere and three were taken in Sylhet, the countrywide anti-discrimination student protests had escalated, prompting the then government to postpone the remaining tests indefinitely on July 16.
After the ousting of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, the interim government, formed on August 8, rescheduled the remaining exams for September 11.
However, on August 20, a group of HSC candidates forced their way into the Secretariat building in the capital and locked the gates to pressure the authorities into cancelling the rest of the exams. 
This year’s HSC candidates were SSC candidates in 2022. That year, the exams were held under an abridged syllabus and the students had to sit for a total of seven exams, including the three mandatory ones (Bangla, English and mathematics), said Tapan, also chairman of the Dhaka Education Board.
About the drop in the pass rate, he said, “The HSC pass rate mainly depends on the candidates’ performances in English and Information and Technology [ICT]. In many places, the performances were poor in these subjects.”
Board sources said that 69 percent of the examinees passed the English exam in the Jashore and Chattogram education boards, while 74 percent of the students in the Mymensingh education board and 76 percent in the Dinajpur education boards passed in the ICT subjects. 
Tapan unveiled the detailed results in front of journalists at the Dhaka Education Board office yesterday morning.
He said 13,31,058 students sat for the HSC and equivalent exams, and of them, 10,35,309 passed the exams.
With the SSC exams under nine general education boards, Alim exams under the madrasa board and HSC vocational tests under the technical board, the combined pass rate was 77.78 percent — a slight drop from last year’s 78.64 percent.
Meanwhile, 1,45,911 students under those boards combined got a grade point average of five (GPA-5) — 53,316 more than last year’s 92,595.
Tapan said that the results prepared based on the SSC exam has worked as one of the factors behind the increase in GPA-5 achievers.
In terms of pass rate in HSC, girls outperformed the boys for the 15th straight year, while they outperformed the boys in GPA-5 achievement for the fourth straight year, board officials said. 
The pass rate for girls was 78.27 percent, while it was 72.55 percent for the boys. a total of 72,788 girls achieved GPA-5 while 58,588 boys did the same.
In 65 educational institutions across the country, no students passed. Last year, the number was 42.
Tapan urged the authorities concerned to take steps in improving the academic standard of the institutions in which no students passed. “If they [the institutions] can’t improve their standard, we’ll take action against them. We’ll follow the due process.”
Meanwhile, the number of institutions with a 100 percent pass rate jumped to 1,388 this year, compared to 2023’s 953.
Among the nine general education boards, the highest pass rate — 85.39 percent – was seen in Sylhet. Mymensingh saw the lowest at 63.22 percent
In Barishal, it was 81.85 percent, 81.24 in Rajshahi, 79.21 in Dhaka, 77.56 in Dinajpur, 71.15 in Cumilla, 70.32 in Chattogram and 64.29 in Jashore.
Dhaka had the highest number of GPA-5 achievers – 48,548 examinees. Barishal saw the lowest number in this regard at 4,167.
A total of 282 students took the exams from eight overseas exam centres and 95.39 percent of them passed.
This is the first time since 2002 that the HSC results were not handed over to the head of the government and there was no official press conference for the unveiling of the results.
“This was done in line with the current government’s decision,” Tapan said.