Fear despite record results in HSC exam
As always, we will hear from educationalists and researchers about the extent to which the quality of education has improved compared to the results
The results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination were published Sunday. Due to the Covid pandemic, everyone was promoted with auto pass last year, but this time a special test was held eight months after the deadline. There has been a lot of criticism of the government's policy on the issue of public examinations and the fact that students are suffering the most. There is still confusion about how education will be conducted and how the problems will be resolved. Our educational institutions are still closed.
This time too, the students were in a fix whether the exam will be held or not. That affected their preparations for the exam. However, the results, released almost a month and a half after the exam, revealed that students have done well in terms of both the pass rate and GPA-5 over the past decade or so.
The average pass rate in 9 general education boards is 95.57 per cent. As many as 178,522 students obtained GPA-5, which is 16 per cent of the total candidates. The number of GPA-5 is more than the HSC results of 2020 that was published without holding exam. A total of 41,807 students got GPA-5 in the 2019 exam held in normal manner, which is only 3.71 per cent of the total examinees of that year.
The reason for this record good results this year is that the six-paper test had been held on a group-wise shortened syllabus on three subjects. The question paper also had more options that normal. Apart from that the GPA for other subjects were retained from the result of JSC and SSC and equivalent examination through ‘subject mapping’. Many of those who did well in JSC and SSC have done well in HSC. In the past, many humanities students did not do well in subjects like English. This time the students did not have to take the English test.
The rise in the pass rate of the country's public exam has already been criticised. This time the upward curve was a record. As always, we will hear from educationalists and researchers about the extent to which the quality of education has improved compared to the results. This 'bumper yield' of GPA-5 will definitely be a big challenge for the students to get admission in the university. We have seen that students and parents are more inclined towards the top universities and medical colleges of the country. Those concerned with education have suggested students to go beyond the traditional career plan and focus on diversity for higher education.
Even then, another problem will remain. There is no opportunity to take the admission test for a second time in many universities in the country, including Dhaka University. It has even been decided to reduce the number of seats in Dhaka University. In the last few years, the students have suffered a lot due to the anarchy in admission tests in some universities.
Rather than admissions test woes being lessened, these have been exacerbated it. This time many students have to rely on national universities and private universities. The session jam of the National University, the absence of preferred subjects and departments in the colleges and the financial inability to study in private universities will throw the GPA-5 students into a quandary.
The universities can adopt the similar approach of medical colleges with special conditions to take admission tests for the second time. In addition the recurrence of the mismanagement that was seen last time in the cluster admission test must be prevented. Students with good GPA should not be obstructed on the path of realising the dream of future higher education and career.