College admission: Woes of GPA 5 scorers

Although the total number of GPA 5-achievers in the SSC exam results in 2015 has seen a 'drop', it is still high. The scenario is found in all the big cities, including Dhaka. News reports have been saying that this year also many students willing to enroll in reputable colleges in the capital are set to be disheartened. It means the grade point average (GPA) 5-achievers are going to overwhelm the quality colleges in the metropolis. In the meantime, the admission process began across the country on June 6. It will continue up to June 18.
This year a total of 36,801 students got GPA 5 under Dhaka education board. There are around 15-20 colleges in the city which enjoy the reputation of being better colleges. They can take in 20,000 students at best. Given the fact, the coming days will see a fierce struggle of students to get admission to their cherished colleges to enroll in higher secondary certificate (HSC) classes. The efforts to get admitted to top colleges have been getting more intense with every passing year.
After passing the crucial school-final Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, the better performing students dream of entering quality colleges. Over the last few years, the number of these colleges proved to be acutely inadequate in Dhaka. It was caused by a fabulous increase in students passing SSC exams with GPA 5. On the other hand, with the slow emergence of better colleges, the spectacle became gloomier. Against the fast rise in GPA 5 scorers, the number of quality colleges has not increased in proportion.
With students left out of well-performing colleges and compelled to hang on to the average ones every year, the authorities are, in fact, depriving them of quality college education. Eventually, the murky development brings into question the rationale of the very GPA system. True, theoretically the method judges students' brilliance scientifically; it doesn't follow the traditional talent-evaluation style. But could we put it to practice in an accurate manner? On finding ordinary students come up with unexpected results and face hurdles in their later career, many suspect lacunae in running the GPA model. What follows are confusions cropping up after the results are out. At the end of the day, the modern scoring system remains just an occasion for feeling smug over brilliant results of students. However, this speaks of the authorities' below par performance in dealing with the GPA marking method; it began to be detected just a few years after the system's introduction in 2001.
The GPA method of judging academic achievements has its beneficial aspects, and quite aplenty at that. Students and their guardians have welcomed it. That students cannot get admitted to colleges of their choice ought to be blamed on the poor education infrastructure. With limited openings to reputable colleges, the SSC-passing students are veritably denied the scope of proving their academic worth further.
Mere feeling boastful of generously handing out higher GPA scores and not allowing the students to take future academic challenges cannot be termed wise. Ruefully, this is what is happening in the country. Owing to their being caught in an academic quagmire, the post-SSC career of many students cannot find out its desired path. As a result, they get afflicted with many traumas for no fault of their own.
Given the same old admission scenario after the publication of SSC results, it's time the authorities running the show at school and college-level education swung into action. The seat capacity for post-SSC students at quality colleges should be expanded.  And as existing colleges cannot be turned into reputable ones overnight, new ones can be set up under government initiatives. The highly famed government colleges of the past have long begun losing their shine. Moreover, few well-equipped colleges are established anew by the government these days. In fact, a mixed group of private and government colleges runs the show in the country's urban areas, including Dhaka. A few of these colleges have radically changed the scene in our Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) education. Names of a few fully private colleges deserve special mention in this regard. They were established not long ago.
Over the last one and half decades, admission-seeking students in Dhaka have been seen opting for only a handful of colleges. They belong to both private and government categories. This trend can be changed by raising the standard of the existing colleges having potential for improvement.
shihabskr@ymail.com