Officials hail grade-8 students with GPA 5 in 2018 as ‘really meritorious’

After a sharp decline in the number of students with the highest grade point average of 5, officials say the grade-8 students, who have secured the maximum GPA, are “really meritorious”.

The officials are considering the fact that the students had to secure the maximum grade point without the marks in any optional subject this year.

In Junior School Certificate or JSC and Junior Dakhil Certificate or JDC exams for eighth graders, the average pass rate is 85.83 percent - a 2.18-point rise from last year, according to the results published on Monday.

The number of GPA-5 achievers, however, has shrunk to one-third in a year –68,095. It was 191,628 last year.

Previously the marks in the “fourth subject”, which was optional, were taken into account while calculating the overall results, but this year it was not done in accordance with the updates to evaluation methods, leading to the decline in GPA 5.0 recipients, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said. 

“The number of GPA-5 achievers would have increased had we included the fourth subject marks,” he added.

The authorities have also cut three papers and 200 marks off the grade-8 exams to ease the load on the students.

“It may appear for now that the number of GPA-5 scoring students has dropped, but it actually hasn’t because we are improving the evaluation method to global standards,” Nahid said.

Inter-education board coordination subcommittee chief Prof Md Ziaul Haque is also happy with the results.

“The path to find out the really meritorious students has opened. Those who have missed GPA 5 will now realise what they need to do better,” he said.

Sylhet education board Chairman Prof Md Abdul Quddus and Dinajpur board Chairman Md Abu Bakr Siddique agreed.

“It has been quality evaluation this year. The students who have secured GPA 5 are the actually meritorious ones,” Quddus said.

He also said the drop in pass rate in his board from 89 percent to 79 percent was caused by “harder” mathematics question paper than those of the other boards. The pass rate in this paper has dropped to 85 percent from last year’s 96 percent.

MINISTER TAKES A JIBE AT KINDERGARTENS

Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar has said the kindergartens have started a “grand competition” with the government primary schools.

At a news conference at Secretariat after the publication of the results, he said some guardians did not want “average-standards” education for their children.

“The word “kindergarten” seems to thrill those who want to send their children abroad,” he said.

The number of kindergartens is increasing even in the rural areas due to increased financial ability of the people, the minister observed.

“They (kindergartens) have started a grand competition to beat us as an alternative. But I think, by the grace of Allah, kindergartens will never become an alternative to us,” he added.

Mostafizur said the government has taken an initiative to bring trainers from the UK through the British Council to train two English teachers of every school at the divisional level.

“We will also create master trainers. No-one will be able to banish us. Because we are 65,000 (the number of government primary schools in Bangladesh),” he said.

There is no official data on kindergartens in Bangladesh. The number of such institutions is rising as the authorities of many of these schools do not seek government permission.