Good English and math grades drive SSC pass rates

A year after poor showing in math and English tests pushed down pass rate to a nine-year low of 77.77 percent, SSC and equivalent examinees have fared better to drive the success rate.

Shahidul Islambdnews24.com
Published : 6 May 2019, 09:15 PM
Updated : 6 May 2019, 09:15 PM

This year’s pass rate would have been much better had more candidates not failed to clear their humanities subjects, officials said after publication of the results on Monday.

A total of 82.2 percent students have passed the SSC and similar exams under the eight general education boards, the madrasa board, and the technical education board, marking a 4.43 percentage point rise from last year.

Chittagong Government Collegiate School students overjoyed with their SSC results. Photo: Suman Babu

Pass rates in English rose in all the boards. The students have done better in math as well, but not those who took the tests under Dhaka, Chattogram, Barishal, and Sylhet boards.

Jashore board’s pass rate has increased to 90.88 percent by 14.24 percentage points.

Cumilla, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, and madrasa boards have also enjoyed a better success rate. Only Dhaka board suffered a decline.

But Education Minister Dipu Moni sees no problem in differences between pass rates of different boards.

“It’s nothing unusual… There has not been any lax. The students showed better performance where the pass rates soared,” she said after publishing the results.

Students of Dr Khastagir Government Girls' High School, Chittagong flashing the victory sign after coming out successful in the SSC exams. Photo: Suman Babu

A fall in pass rate in math by 2.56 percentage points and humanities subjects by 3.34 percentage points caused the drop in Dhaka, the minister said.

“The pass rates in humanities affected the results on the whole as the highest number of students were from the division,” she pointed out.

About 55 percent of the over 2.1 million students who registered for this year’s SSC tests were from humanities stream.

They also made up 54.5 percent of the failed students.

Students of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College in Dhaka flashing the victory sign after successfully passing the SSC exams. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director, Campaign for Popular Education or CAMPE, praised the authorities for publishing the results in time and preventing question paper leaks.

The former education affairs adviser to a caretaker government, however, thinks the issue of differences between pass rates in different boards needs to be looked into.

Some institutions let a few students take the exams to show better results to continue enjoying government facilities like monthly pay order or MPO, Rasheda believes.

Sylhet board did worse than others this year because the students outside the city, especially those in the tea gardens, could not perform well, she pointed out.