We are producing under achievers by showing higher pass rates

WHILE congratulating the achievers of higher secondary level tests, the second largest series of public examinations in the country, we express our worries over limited seat capacity in higher educational institutions. Tainted with question leakage, guardians’ protest, wariness of educationists, and the government’s propaganda, the 2014 HSC examinations are unique in the recent history. The higher rate of pass and GPA 5 achievements are feared to create uneven competitions in admission tests in top universities, and medical and engineering colleges. The government’s attempt to brush up its polluted face by showing up higher success rate in the examinations does not bode well for the rising number of meritorious students and education standards in the country. We always said the education sector should be barred from nasty politics to usher a bright future for the country.Both the pass percentage and Grade Point Average-5 achievers in the HSC and equivalent examinations sharply rose up comparative to previous years, except 2012. According to the HSC results published on Wednesday, the combined pass percentage was 78.33, which is 4.03 percentage points higher than that of the past year’s 74.30 percentage and 0.34 percentage points lower than 2012. The number of students who achieved a maximum GPA 5 this year was 70,602, up by 12,405 from 58,197 of last year while a total of 11,41,374 students sat for HSC and equivalent examinations under eight general education boards, the Technical Education Board and the Madrassah Education Board. A total of 885,070 students have passed the examinations. The pass rate for eight general boards also increased as 75.74 percent students passed the exams compared to 71.13 percent last year. Girls performed better than boys as 78.86 percent girls and 77.86 percent boys passed the exams.Referring to the success rate, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh is moving forward and the quality of education will go up once it reaches everyone and assured the HSC achievers that the government would establish either a public or private university in every district to meet the demand of the admission seekers in higher education. The Premier’s assurance again worried educationists who are already aware of the mushrooming substandard private universities, alongside with the current certificate sellers.English and mathematics questions of Dhaka Board were leaked out and lenience in answer script evaluation was instrumental in the higher pass percentage, opined experts. There are allegations of other question paper leaks for pushing up the exams pass rate. While the Education Minister is busy over televising success stories, the large numbers of under achievers are mired in worry over admission into against only 70,000 seats in higher educational institutions. The Education Minister should know that he cannot fool all the people all the time.