People who care for the country's education are unanimous in their verdict that the results of this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations have suffered a serious setback. Since the introduction of the grading system in 2003, it is for the first time that the percentage of pass and the number of top grade (grade point average, GPA-5) have both significantly nosedived together. The percentage of pass for the eight general education boards this year is 65.84 as against 75.74 of the previous year (2014). Against 57,789 GPA-5 scorers of the year 2014, this time the number of such scorers is only 34,721- a total of 23,068 fewer.
However, the Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB) and the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board have fared well with the former outshining the previous year's results. Last year the percentage of pass for the BTEB was 85.02 but this year it has marked a slight improvement to 85.58. The number of GPA-5 too has gone up from last year's 6,393 to 6,430. The madrasah board has to its credit a percentage of pass at 90.19 which is a slight decline from 94.08 per cent the previous year. But its overall GPA-score is where it has suffered the most. Against 6,025 GPA scorers of 2014, this year the number is 1,453.
In terms of reversal of higher secondary results, therefore, the technical board can be left aside. Even madrasah board can be excluded on the ground that the slight drop in percentage of pass does not point to anything abnormal. As for the decline in the number of GPA-5 score, though, it is a cause for concern.
However, what is particularly galling is the light year's gap between and among percentages of pass of different education boards. Jessore Education Board is wallowing at the bottom with 46.45 per cent of pass whereas Rajshai board is topping the list of the boards of general education with 77.54 per cent. There is no need to make any comparison with the technical and madrasa boards. Subjects and syllabi are different there. But in case of general education, such wide differences in the percentages of pass definitely indicate that something is seriously wrong in the system of education here.
An attempt has been made to focus on the weak points of the Jessore Education Board. English as a subject has been found to be the spoiler of the party there. Others have identified the lack of coordination between those who teach at classes and those who set question papers in case of general education. Then there is a complaint against the newly introduced subject of information and communication technology (ICT). It is only natural that in educational institutions located in rural areas, facilities for learning the subject are either absent or inadequate. Even teachers qualified for teaching the subject are not available. This is a compulsory subject bearing 100 marks and although the total picture of pass, fail of the other six subjects was projected, this subject has intriguingly been omitted from this exercise. Why? If English could be blamed for poor results, the negative contribution of ICT should also be made clear to the public.
Undeniably, education in this country has so indiscriminately been made a subject of whimsical experiments that the learners most of the time find it hard to cope with those. A batch or two at the secondary or higher secondary levels have to pay a heavy price for no fault of their own. After each such reversal or disaster, the authorities come up with a flurry of activities as if those will be enough to address the problems. But all begins with a bang and ends in a whimper.
What is less talked about is the political stakes and their corollaries that actually decide the fate of merit evaluation of students. When instructions are issued for examiners to follow to the effect that if the answer to a question just gives the impression that an examinee has somehow been familiar with the issue in question, marks have to be awarded no matter if the answer makes no sense at all, it is purely a political preserve. Teachers not compliant reportedly had to face awkward situation in the years before. This year was perhaps different.
The possibility of whether a regime of non-issuance of any such instruction is mainly to blame for this year's result reversal cannot be ruled out. It is now crystal clear that schools and colleges no longer impart education. The reputed ones have just introduced a well-drilled system under which students and their guardians are steamrolled. They are forced to engage house tutors or rush to coaching centres one after another. Students have no spare time for games and sports or entertainment. Coaching centres operated by miracle men and women have invented some techniques of bottle-feeding their students with notes and suggestions so that they can carry marks enough for the top grade. There is no encouragement for originality and creativity.
In this connection, a principal of a reputed school and college has shifted the blame to unlimited use of cell phone particularly chatting on facebook for endless hours. True, a few such phone or computer addicts may have done disservice to their study but it cannot have an overall negative impact on results. Better it would be to look for the defective system of education. No matter one accepts it or not, education has been tailor-made for professions not for knowledge and life. Knowledge is a casualty where technique to score higher marks rules the roost. This situation needs to be changed if the intermediaries like a number of tutors and coaching centres, guide and suggestion books are to be banished. The challenge now is to establish that classes are the proper places for imparting lessons.
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