Teacher crisis blamed for Sylhet trailing other boards in SSC exams

Some other factors like the pandemic and a tendency of migration among families are also blamed for the poor results by the board in recent years

Sylhet has seen the lowest pass rate in Secondary School Certificate exams among all the education boards for the third consecutive year, prompting teachers and educationists to search for answers.

Against a national average of 83.04 percent, 2.65 percentage points higher than last year, and the highest in Jashore at 92.33 percent, Sylhet has reported a 73.35 percent success rate in the SSC exams this year, according to results published on Sunday.

The pass rate in the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Sylhet, was 76.06 percent in 2023 and 78.82 percent in 2022.

The institutions in the region have cited a shortage of teachers as the main cause of lagging behind others.

The teachers there also lack proper skills to impart lessons, according to them.

Some other factors like the pandemic and a tendency of migration among families living in the region are also blamed for the poor results by the board in recent years.

The pass rate is less than 60 percent in Baralekhar Das Bazar High School of Moulvibazar.

Deepak Ranjan Das, assistant headmaster of the school, identified the effect of the pandemic, economic inequality and a teacher shortage as the main reasons behind the poor results.

“Each of my classes has sections. I have only 15 teachers for 1,000 students from 6th to 10th standard. We still have a shortage of teachers. That has affected the exams,” he said.

But the pass rate of Sonapur Model High School in Doarabazar, Sunamganj is 91.67 percent.

Emdadul Haque, a senior teacher of the school, said, “Parents want their children to earn from an early age. They want to finish their responsibilities by marrying their children off at an early age.

“Parents are not serious about studies. Their interest is waning because of the economic crisis. Most of the students are unemployed after completing their study.”

He feels that there is no alternative to regular parent meetings in schools to make them aware to improve the results.

"Parents should understand that education is not an option. The teacher crisis must also be resolved, otherwise the Sylhet board will remain behind.”

Sylhet board officials are also blaming the effects of the pandemic, teacher shortage and the tendency to go abroad for the poor pass rates.

The board’s Controller of Exams Arun Chandra Pal said, “Sylhet board has more humanities students. Humanities students do poorly in math and English.”

He said that bad performance in general science and mathematics in this board have affected the overall results.

Sylhet board had 77, 547 students under humanities stream, 24, 153 under science, and 7,373 under business studies.

The pass rate was 68.50 percent in humanities, 88.14 percent in science and 75.97 percent in business education.

Arun said that this time 88.87 percent of students passed in general science and 89.22 percent in mathematics.

He said, “Parents think that teaching science will cost them more. Families opt for humanities because of affluence. Parents in rural areas don't want to spend more. They just want their children to pass somehow.”

As for teachers, many of the newly recruited ones do not want to stay here, so there has always been a dearth of quality teachers in the Sylhet region, Arun said.

Besides a shortage of teachers, the tendency to go abroad is also high here, according to him.

"The teacher crisis must be resolved. And institutions should increase oversight.”

WHY JASHORE DOING WELL

In Jashore, 90.38 percent of humanities students passed SSC exams this year, 96.14 percent under science stream and 94.50 percent under business education.

Biswas Shaheen Ahmed, Controller of Examinations of Intermediate and Secondary Board of Education, Jashore. considers the board's internal exam mechanism as the key to success.

He told bdnews24.com, “We’re the only one to conduct internal exams since 2016. We conduct half-yearly and annual exams in schools for board questions from classes VI to 10.”

The board also has a bunch of dedicated trained Master Trainers who make excellent quality question papers, according to him.

“Students take preparations for public examinations by practising these exercises. Our teachers prepare questions for free. The inertia and fear of the students are reduced by taking these exams. As a result, they can sit for exams without any hesitation.”

Jashore also topped the SSC examination results with a pass rate of 95.17 percent in 2022.

LOW GPA-5 RATE

The number of students having a GPA-5 score has decreased to 182,129 this year, compared to 183,578 last year.

Tapan Kumar Sarkar, chairman of the Intermediate and Secondary Board of Education, Dhaka, feels that the number of GPA-5 holders has slightly decreased as the exams were conducted on full syllabi. Short syllabi were used during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

“So, the results have been good accordingly,” he said.

The pass rate, however, has increased

"The reason behind this improvement is that the children got two years to study,” said Tapan.

“Low marks in English and maths play a major role in our poor results. This year our students [under Dhaka board] have done better in English and maths than last year.”

KEY TO SUCCESS

As many as 2,411 students of Motijheel Ideal School and College in Dhaka has a 99.59 percent pass rate among its 2,411 SSC candidates this year.

And 1,956 of them got GPA-5.

Mohammad Emam Hossain, acting headmaster of the school, feels that students should be engaged in educational activities throughout the year to improve results.

“They must build a habit of coming to school throughout the year. They will learn if they come to school and continue studying throughout the year,” he said.

There should be regular assessments and teachers must give lessons in classrooms, Emam said.

“In many schools, there is not much learning in the classroom. For this, the head teachers should increase their vigilance to educate the students. Teachers should remember that they have many responsibilities. They should be trained with that in mind."

According to Professor SM Wahiduzzaman, former director general at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, good results depend on educational institutions, students and the education system.

Speaking about Sylhet’s performance, he said: "Certainly the students of that area are not being taught properly. The board conducts the exams, but it is the responsibility of the educational institutions to conduct those who take the tests. The quality of education depends on the teachers, students and education system there.”

"As such, no board should be stereotyped as a poor performer. Instead, the reasons behind its poor performance should be identified. They will do good if their system improves,” he said.

He has urged to increase vigilance from the beginning of the year at the institutions with no successful candidate.

"Educational institutions are established considering a range of factors – whether there will be students in that area, whether teaching is possible, whether there are transportation facilities.

“It is not right to take measures only after seeing the results, because it is possible to know the capability of an institution at the beginning of a year. If they don’t have the capability to give education, they should not be allowed to participate in the tests,” he explained.