HSC pass rate hits an all-time high in the pandemic. Is that a good thing?

A record 95.26 percent of the candidates for Higher Secondary Certificate or HSC have passed the reduced syllabus exams amid the coronavirus pandemic, but many fear the gap in lessons will have repercussions in students’ university admission and higher studies.

All agree that the shortened syllabus, fewer subjects and many options on the question papers led to the good results despite long closures of the educational institutions.

“Maybe students were able to prepare more thoroughly because of the shorter syllabi and fewer subjects. That’s why they did much better,” said Education Minister Dipu Moni after the results were published on Sunday.

The previous highest pass rate was 78.7 percent in 2012. The results for the 2021 exams also had a record 189,169 students securing the GPA-5.

As COVID-19 forced all education centres to be closed in 2020, students were evaluated based on their JSC and SSC results instead of an HSC exam. This led to automatic promotion for all examinees.

The 2021 HSC exams were held in December after being pushed back eight months due to the pandemic.

The assessments consisted of six papers from an abbreviated syllabus of three elective subjects. Students got one and a half hours to finish the exams instead of the usual three as the number of questions was also cut.

Compulsory subjects, such as Bangla and English, were assessed based on students’ performance in previous public exams.

Although students were not given the certificates without exams, Fahima Khatun, a former director general at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, believes the assessment did not reflect the students’ performance properly.

The former teacher noted that automatically promoted students from the HSC 2020 faced problems in university admission tests.

“Many had high hopes after achieving GPA-5, but they failed to get pass admission tests. The same thing might happen again. The results have not given us the complete picture.” She advised the students to study properly for their admission tests.

Professor Mohammad Tariq Ahsan of Dhaka University’s Institute of Education and Research thinks the students’ weaknesses in compulsory subjects, such as Bangla and English, will remain in the future. He suggested taking up a programme to fill in the gaps for this batch of students.

Syed Md Golam Faruque, who recently left DSHE as its director general, advised the students to study by themselves to cover the losses. “It’s nothing big. They will be able to overcome the shortcomings themselves.”

Shahan Ara Begum, principal of Motijheel Ideal School and College, also thinks meritorious students will study by themselves without any additional help. “They won’t face any problems.”

Although higher studies institutions are keen to hold exams on the complete syllabus to pick up the best students, Dipu Moni wants university and medical college admission exams to be set and marked on the shorter syllabi of the HSC tests amid the pandemic.

Prof Abdul Mannan, a former chairman of the University Grants Commission, however, thinks the entire admission system should change.

“Our students need to sharpen their language and analytical skills when they go to study abroad. They take GRE, IELTS, GMAT exams. Do they take admission tests? Our admission test system is not realistic at all.”