SSC pass rate five-yr low at 80.39pc

Results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations of 2023 were published Friday across Bangladesh with lower aggregate pass percentage at 80.39 and 0.18 million GPA-5 scorers.

According to education ministry's statistics, this year's success rate at the most important exam in pupil's academic life stands out as the worst in last five years.

Students attaining GPA-5 top grade also declined by 34 per cent year on year.

Female students have once again surpassed their male peers in both the pass and GPA- 5 rates.

Over 1.03 million girls took the exams, and 81.88 per cent of them passed. By comparison, the pass rate among the 1.01 million boys who sat for the tests was 78.87 percent.

Some 98,614 female students achieved a GPA of 5.0, accounting for 13,650 more than their male counterparts.

Interestingly, the decline in GPA-5 holders as well as  publication of the results on the public holiday resulted in a drop in sweet sales which usually increased on the occasion of SSC-result publication in the past, said traders.

According to the ministry data, a total of 82.20 per cent passed the exam in 2019 which increased to 82.87 in 2020, 93.58 in 2021, 87.44 per cent in 2022 and got reduced to 80.39 per cent this year.

Barishal Board shows the best result while Sylhet performed worst in the 2023 SSC exam.

Barishal's passing rate is 90.18 per cent, followed by Rajshahi with 87.89 per cent, Jashore 86.17 percent, Mymensingh 85.49 percent, Dhaka Board 77.55 percent, Chittagong 78.29 percent, Cumilla 78.42 percent, Dinajpur 76.87 percent and Sylhet 76.06 percent.

Pass rate in Madrasa Board is 74.70 while Technical Education Board is 86.35 per cent.

According to the Ministry of Education, at this year's SSC and equivalent exams total 0.207 million participated under 11 education boards of which female students 1.02 million and male 1.05 million. The exams were held from April 30 to May 23.

Meanwhile, sweet shopkeepers witnessed disappointing sales on the publication of the SSC results as released on the weekly holiday (Friday) while a lesser number of students getting GPA-5, claim traders.

They also said political demonstrations and gatherings by two main opposition parties the same day also caused such "dullness as people went out of home in lesser numbers".

Sankar Sarker, the proprietor of Bhagyakul Mishtanno Bhandar at West Dhanmondi, told the FE they made sweets in double volume after hearing from his nephew on Thursday that the SSC results would be published Friday.

"I didn't even get my normal sale today (Friday) as 70 per cent of the sweets are still on the shelves," says the sweet-seller on a sour note.

He thinks the result was published "unpredictably" on a holiday while the two main political parties called a gathering the same day, which hurt business.

Azad Hossain, a sales manager at Paradise Sweet in Mohammadpur, also attributed the dull sweet sale partly to the decline in the number of GPA -5 passes.

"We got just one maund (40 kg) of order especially dedicated for SSC-passed students which was, as I could remember, eight maunds in 2022," he said.

No students from 48 schools of the country have passed this year's SSC examinations while it was 50 last year.

On the other hand, the number of educational institutions having 100-percent passes also decreased. This time, 2,354 schools under all education boards in the country achieved cent-percent pass rate while the number was 2,975 in last year.

"Most of the educational institutions which have registered zero-rated pass are mainly yet to come under the list of Monthly Pay Order (MPO) as the number of students of these institutions is few," Education Minister Dipu Moni disclosed at a press conference at the International Mother Language Institute (IMLI) in the capital on the day.

For enrolment under the MPO, a particular educational institution requires enrolment of a minimum number of students and the problem is there, she added.

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