37-percentage point jump in pass rates of Jessore board leave many stunned

Turning last year's abysmal results into chapters of forgotten history, Jessore education board has taken a giant leap, improving its results by 37 percentage points since last year.

The board had drawn flak after poor results last year.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the improvement comes after drastic measures were taken after last year's debacle.

Chief Controller of Examinations Madhab Chandra Rudra said "pass-friendly questions" were also responsible for the stellar performance.

Students sailed through subjects like English with ease this year, which last year had been responsible for the maximum failures.

On Thursday, HSC results of eight boards of general, technical and madrasa education were published simultaneously.

While an average of about 5 percentage point improvement in results was reported by all other boards, the Jessore board left everyone surprised by a 37 percentage point improvement.

When asked about the secret behind the magic performance, Rudra told bdnews24.com, "We expected it to be even better!"

He went on to add that a commission appointed to probe  last year's poor  results blamed  the lacklustre performance on English and Physics.

"The question paper was fail-proof."

As steps to check question paper leaks, last year boards were allowed to pick one out of 37 sets of question papers prepared by the seven other boards through a draw of lots.

A board official blamed difficult English and Physics question papers that had landed through the lottery for last year's debacle.

The result has attracted attention of journalists who asked Education Minister Nahid if instructions were sent out to award marks liberally.

"There is no pressure to issue such instructions," he replied.

Rudra, however, said the absence of violence, bomb blasts and stability on the political front helped the board to pull off the feat.