Masum Billah :
SSC and equivalent examinations started since 15 February and the written tests were completed on 12 March and the practical examinations continued till 20 March beginning from 13 March 2024. On 12 May the results came out means that in less than two months’ time the results have appeared.
Like the previous years the Prime Minister inaugurated actually she declared the results showing an exceptional tradition of our country. In all the countries of the world public examinations take place but not the chief executive of the state opens the results.
In Bangladesh the PM does it and offers necessary advices to the students, teachers and guardians. The girls are doing continuously better for the last five years at a stretch that makes her happy and appreciates the performances of the girls. However, she also wants to learn the case of boys.
Why the number of boys in the public examination is decreasing and why they are lagging behind girls. She suggested the guardians, teachers and others concerned not to show any kind of negative attitude towards those who could not come out successful. We really appreciate the Prime Minister’s concern for education.
This year the average pass is 83.04 percent, last year it was 80.39 percent means slightly better than last year and the boys’ pass percentage is 81.57 while girls’ 84.47.
Only in three boards the number of boys registers a little bit bigger than girls while all other boards show girls’ bigger number. In eleven education boards boys’ passed 9 lac 99 thousand 364 and girls 10 lac 38 thousand 786. Why does it happen? We have some assumed causes but based on no real study or research that is necessary to be done.
In Dhaka Board the pass percentage is 89.32, Rajshahi 89.25, Cumilla 79.23, Chattogram 82.80, Barishal 89.13, Dinajpur 78.40 and Mymensingh 84.97. The highest pass percentage is seen in Jashore Board which is 92.32 and the lowest 73.35 means 18.97 percent less in Sylhet Board.
The mystery or magic of this difference remains unknown to us and this case repeats every year and we urge the authorities concerned to find out the real cause or causes of this difference to identify through genuine research otherwise it does not carry any meaning or value for us.
Interestingly, the board which obtains the lowest position in one year in pass percentage achieves the highest position just the next year. The nation and all concerned should know the magic as a case of learning for other boards that never happens.
Another thing we observe every year that not a single student passes from some institutions. This number was 48 last year and this year 51 even though all the infrastructures of these intuitions prevail equally. No convincing remedial steps are unknown to have been taken to change this situation by the authorities concerned.
We can learn some causes of failure of these schools and madrasa because of active roles of education journalists who deserve thanks. The pass percentage of Technical Education Board sees 81.38 percentage even though we expect more practical oriented works in these institutions. So, these results don’t tell us the whole story.
Moreover, our emphasis should be more and more on technical education that also has also not been discerned. Madrasa Education Boar has secured 79.66 pass percentage with 14thousand 206 GPA-5 holders. In previous years we used to see the highest pass percentage in madrasas without any reasonable cause.
These results only tell us how much students can write, either this way or that way on the examination scripts. However, only writing test cannot ascertain the holistic development of the learners.
Their attitude, behaviour, active participation in class work, homework, group work, doing effective assignment and making presentation should get reflected in their overall performance that never happens. In new curriculum all these elements have been added but the implementation process and over expectation make us frustrated to implement effectively.
There should be a ranking process of the educational institutions giving emphasis on how these effective means of education are being implemented and how far students are accruing benefits from these.
English and Mathematics play a significant role in enhancing the individual, institutional and board wise results. When the performance of these two subjects gets higher, the results also tilt accordingly. This year we have not yet learnt the overall situation of English. However, some newspapers have reported that in Mathematics students did not do well. Boards must develop such type of mechanism as will tell the status of English and Mathematics automatically when results are being published.
A question comes to our mind what are the roles of education boards? Just to make students fill in forms, conduct exams and publishing exam results? What role do they play to increase the quality of education? Do they conduct any quality session for the teachers, headteachers, principals and education administrators to exchange views and ideas among them.
Do they conduct any survey or studies or research to gauze the cause or causes of enhancing the quality of education, to enhance the capacity of teachers or to develop the quality of developing questions to make it creative and global standard? Even controversy over examining scripts and awarding hybrid marks are frequently been complained by educationists and real assessment remains elusive. Boards must come up with reasonable answers to this question as well.
(The writer is President, English Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh-ETAB)
