The results of the HSC exam brings both joy and sorrow for students and parents every year. The reason for joy is the success of the students in the second public exam of their life that paves the way for higher education and a good career. And the reason for sorrow is that almost one-fourth of the total examinees fail to pass the hurdle.
According to the results of the examination, there were 11,12, 372 candidates in the 2023 HSC examination under nine general education boards. Among them 8,44,269 passed. The pass rate is 75.90. And 78 thousand 521 candidates got GPA-5. The pass rate in technical and madrasa education boards is 91.25 and 90.75 respectively.
Whether the pass rate is lower than that of last year or higher than the pre-corona period, what is more worrying is the failure of a large number of students. This is the first full syllabus exam after the corona pandemic. In 2022 the exam was held with half marks. And in the year 2021, examination was conducted on three elective subjects based on department.
As always, girls have done better than boys this time. That is good news. But it is also important to find out the reasons why boys are getting bad results every time. In rural areas, boys from poor families have to be involved in agriculture as well as studies. But their number is not high. Whether it is a boy or a girl, parents should not make their children work unless they are absolutely helpless.
An analysis of the results shows some boards have the pass rate of more than 85 per cent while some have around 70 per cent. Why is there such discrepancy? It must be found where the lacking lies. Where the students did well in mathematics and English those boards have a higher passing rate. Why did not the other boards take care of these two subjects?
In any case, one fourth of the 1.1 million students failing is very unfortunate. The responsibility should not be placed on the students only. All of them studied for two years after passing the SSC exam. Many of them who failed may see their education being stopped. Who will take the responsibility? The personal, family and state investment is not very meager in their case.
Every time after the results of SSC and HSC exams, the officials of the education department promise that everything will be fixed in the future. But this never happens. Everything continues as usual. Even despite the suggestions of educationists, no effective action was taken by the government to compensate for the loss of education due to the corona pandemic.
The harsh reality is that earlier students depended on textbooks and teachers to pass exams. Nowadays the reliance on notebooks, guidebooks and coaching has increased. Although meetings, decisions and instructions have been issued in this regard, there is no sign of their implementation. There is also a severe shortage of qualified and experienced teachers in many educational institutions. If these deficiencies and weaknesses are not overcome, this degradation of education cannot be prevented.