This year's HSC results
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
THE results of this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations held under seven education boards were announced Sunday last. More than 64 per cent of the examinees -- the highest in last seven years -- have come out successful, the Dhaka education board being at the top with a pass percentage of over 70. What is more important is that as many as 11140 students have secured the highest grade point average (GPA) 5 this year breaking all previous records. In addition, the number of colleges with 'zero' pass percentage declined from the last year's 131 to 60 this year while the same with 100 per cent success rate increased to 434 from the last year's 363.
The higher success rate in public examinations, particularly that of secondary and higher secondary levels, for the last few years is being viewed as a welcome development by the authorities as well as the cross section of people, particularly the guardians. It would be unfair if the contribution of the immediate past elected government in putting the SSC and HSC examinations on the right track was not appreciated. Because of the government's efforts and the growing awareness among the teachers, guardians and students, the public examinations have gone through a remarkable improvement in recent years. The number of expulsions of examinees for adopting unfair means has declined drastically with students becoming more attentive to their studies. The steady increase in pass percentage in both SSC and HSC examinations and the number of GPA-5 getters points to this fact. Even the media, both print and electronic, for the last couple of years, have almost stopped making reports on cheating in public examinations following an improvement in the overall situation.
But as far as the public examinations are concerned, the situation hardly remains the same. A little bit of slackness on the part of the authorities concerned would lead to the return to the old days of free-style copying. Here one can recall the post-liberation days when holding of the public examinations became a futile exercise because of massive copying at the examination halls. The situation improved to a large extent after 1975 but it could never be made perfect; there were both improvement and deterioration in the situation over the last 32 years. The governments that ruled the country all those years were not equally serious about maintaining discipline in public examinations.
Amidst all the welcome news about higher pass percentage and students doing better and better in public examinations, there are certain worrying factors. However, such worries -- mainly relating to admissions in to good colleges and public universities -- are nothing new and are encountered by the students and their guardians after every public examination such as SSC and HSC. Soon, there will be a rat race for securing a berth in public universities having limited number of seats and a large number of students with a limited financial ability of their guardians would be left with no choice other than getting themselves admitted either into university-colleges under the National University or cheap and little known private universities. Students coming from affluent families would seek admission into a few highly rated private universities.
The scope for quality higher education in the country is still very limited despite the fact that the private universities have mushroomed in recent years. The public universities with their limited capacity cannot absorb even a fraction of the admission seekers while most private universities are more like commercial entities than educational institutions. The government needs to make sincere efforts to establish more public universities and compel the private universities to offer quality education in a healthy environment at a reasonable cost.
The higher success rate in public examinations, particularly that of secondary and higher secondary levels, for the last few years is being viewed as a welcome development by the authorities as well as the cross section of people, particularly the guardians. It would be unfair if the contribution of the immediate past elected government in putting the SSC and HSC examinations on the right track was not appreciated. Because of the government's efforts and the growing awareness among the teachers, guardians and students, the public examinations have gone through a remarkable improvement in recent years. The number of expulsions of examinees for adopting unfair means has declined drastically with students becoming more attentive to their studies. The steady increase in pass percentage in both SSC and HSC examinations and the number of GPA-5 getters points to this fact. Even the media, both print and electronic, for the last couple of years, have almost stopped making reports on cheating in public examinations following an improvement in the overall situation.
But as far as the public examinations are concerned, the situation hardly remains the same. A little bit of slackness on the part of the authorities concerned would lead to the return to the old days of free-style copying. Here one can recall the post-liberation days when holding of the public examinations became a futile exercise because of massive copying at the examination halls. The situation improved to a large extent after 1975 but it could never be made perfect; there were both improvement and deterioration in the situation over the last 32 years. The governments that ruled the country all those years were not equally serious about maintaining discipline in public examinations.
Amidst all the welcome news about higher pass percentage and students doing better and better in public examinations, there are certain worrying factors. However, such worries -- mainly relating to admissions in to good colleges and public universities -- are nothing new and are encountered by the students and their guardians after every public examination such as SSC and HSC. Soon, there will be a rat race for securing a berth in public universities having limited number of seats and a large number of students with a limited financial ability of their guardians would be left with no choice other than getting themselves admitted either into university-colleges under the National University or cheap and little known private universities. Students coming from affluent families would seek admission into a few highly rated private universities.
The scope for quality higher education in the country is still very limited despite the fact that the private universities have mushroomed in recent years. The public universities with their limited capacity cannot absorb even a fraction of the admission seekers while most private universities are more like commercial entities than educational institutions. The government needs to make sincere efforts to establish more public universities and compel the private universities to offer quality education in a healthy environment at a reasonable cost.