Home
+
Published : 10 Jul 2025, 08:58 PM
More than half of the students who sat the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination this year under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Cumilla from the humanities stream have failed, with the pass rate falling to just 46.77 percent.
The pass rate for boys stands at 43.26 percent, while girls have performed slightly better with 47.82 percent passing.
Out of 9,902 students who secured a GPA-5 across all six districts under the board, only 143 came from the humanities stream.
Of these, just five were boys, while the remaining 138 were girls.
Education experts are concerned by the low success rate in humanities despite the number of students being comparable with those in science and business streams.
Runa Nasrin, the board’s exam controller, said: “Humanities attracts fewer high-achieving students compared to science and business studies.
“Many students who fail to secure admission in those streams end up in humanities, which affects the results negatively.”
Several humanities students said they had preferred science or business studies, but opted for humanities due to pressure from guardians or lower grades.
They also said the subjective nature of humanities exams makes it harder to score GPA-5.
Afroza Begum, a parent and teacher at Nawab Faizunnesa Government Girls’ High School, said: “Most top students do not opt for humanities because science and business offer more practical subjects. Students often decide it’s better to skip humanities.”
“It’s wrong to think humanities offers no future. No matter the stream, success comes with good results.
“Students and teachers in humanities need to be more aware, and the results can improve,” she added.
Rasheda Akter, headteacher of the same school, said: “There is a misconception that humanities students are weak. But those who work hard excel in all areas.
“Schools must focus more attention on supporting humanities learners.”
This year, 56,723 candidates appeared in the humanities SSC exam under Cumilla board, with only 25,480 passing.
Board Chairman Shamsul Islam said, “The slump in humanities results has impacted the overall board performance.
“It doesn’t matter whether good or weak students study humanities -- what matters is why those in this stream are underperforming. I plan to investigate thoroughly.”
He added, “I’ve seen that many reputable schools have few or no humanities students. We need to understand why students are losing interest in this stream.”
The overall pass rate in the six-district Cumilla Board stands at 63.60 percent, with 9,902 students earning GPA-5.
A total of 167,572 candidates sat for the exam, with 106,581 passing.
Pass rates by stream are: science 88.01 percent, humanities 46.77 percent, business studies 53.92 percent.
Girls outperform boys in both pass percentage and top grades.
Nationally, this year’s SSC and equivalent exams recorded the lowest pass rate in 15 years at 68.45 percent.
Among successful candidates, 139,032 secured GPA-5, representing 10.66 percent of all passers.
Compared with last year, the pass rate has dropped by 14.59 percentage points, while the number of GPA-5 achievers fell by 43,097.
