Education Minister Milon says SSC result was ‘good’ despite teacher shortages

Despite a 19-year low pass rate, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon says this year’s SSC results were “good” amid severe teacher shortages and disrupted schooling.

Speaking at a public lecture organised by the Education Reform Initiative on Tuesday, he said classroom education “did not take place properly”.

“I said this result is good because our schools have no teachers. In our country… studies were disrupted after COVID,” he said.

“Overall, the result they produced after that, to me, it is a good result.”

He highlighted the scale of the staffing crisis across the education system.

“You go and see, there are no teachers in government schools. You go and see primary schools, 38,000 government schools have no headmasters. You go and see colleges, there are no teachers.

“12,000 teachers are short in government schools. There is a shortage of 50,000 teachers in primary schools; 38,000 headmasters are missing. There is a shortage of 77,000 teachers in my MPO-listed schools and colleges.”

Milon said the crisis was not created during the current government’s five months in office, urging journalists to investigate when it began.

More than 1.8 million students sat this year’s SSC and equivalent exams, with 62.25 percent passing. More than 690,000 failed.

The minister also dismissed reports that management committees had been given authority to recruit teachers at private institutions as “misinformation”.

He said part of a meeting resolution had been published while omitting a provision requiring him to review and scrutinise any proposal before an official notification could be issued.