Girls outperform boys in GPA-5, pass rate in PEC, JSC examinations

The girls have fared far better than the boys in terms of pass percentage and scoring GPA-5 in this year’s PEC, JSC and equivalent examinations.

Of the total 2.184 million or a little over 93 percent who cleared the JSC, JDC exams on Thursday, 53.34 percent are girls and 46.65 percent boys.

When it comes to securing GPA-5, 57 percent or 248,000 female students have passed with flying colours.

“The girls did what we expected of them,” said Rasheda K Chowdhury, Executive Director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).

She said the trend of girls doing better than the boys had been noticed earlier, but this year it was much more visible.

Inter-education board coordination sub-committee chief Professor Mahbubur Rahman hopes the success of the fifth and eighth grader girls will continue in the SSC and HSC exams for 10th graders and 12th graders, respectively.

Around 2.35 million eighth graders sat the Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate exams this year. Out of them, 53.27 percent were female and 46.72 percent male.

Among the nearly 3.1 million fifth graders who took the Primary Education Completion (PEC) and Ebtedayee tests this year, around 54 percent are girls.

The total pass rate is over 98 percent in which girls account for more than 54 percent. Of the nearly 288,000 who scored GPA-5, around 54.5 percent are female.

Inter-board coordination sub-committee chief Prof Rahman told bdnews24.com that girls were doing well in higher education as well.

He said though more girls than boys are sitting the PEC, Ebtedayee, JSC, and JDC exams for the past several years, more boys were securing a greater number of GPA-5s than the girls. But this trend has changed too.

"Girls go out fewer times than the boys do. They study more and listen to their teachers and parents. They have done well because they were more attentive to their studies," he said.

Speaking about the matter, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid quoted from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's speech: "Education is the most important factor in women empowerment."

He said now it is visible that female education in Bangladesh has made great progress.

Nahid and Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman handed over the results to the prime minister at the Ganabhaban in the morning.

There, the prime minister said why the number of boys going to school is shrinking needs to be found out since this government believes in gender equality.

CAMPE Executive Director Rasheda told bdnews24.com that girls are more serious than boys during secondary education. "When the boys spend time with friends out of home or on Facebook, the girls do their study," she said.

The former adviser to a caretaker government said stipends have also influenced the results.