HSC results not poor, rather, reflect reality: Dhaka board chairman
Professor Khondoker Ehsanul Kabir, chairman of the Bangladesh Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and the Dhaka Education Board, today said this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) results are "not poor" but "a reflection of reality."
"We didn't manufacture the results. The real picture has emerged this time. Students have distanced themselves from their study table. I urge guardians to reflect on the issue," he said while announcing the HSC results.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. He noted that the highest number of student failures occurred in English and ICT, with the English pass rate dropping from 77 percent to 58 percent -- its lowest in two decades.
"It's a foreign language, not our mother tongue, so weaknesses are inevitable," he added.
Professor Kabir explained that in previous years, examiners were given "sympathetic instructions" when awarding marks, but this year such practices were absent.
"No pressure or hints were given from the board. The evaluation was accurate, and so the results are real," he said.
He also clarified that the Dhaka Board did not prepare this year's question papers. Instead, papers were distributed through an inter-board lottery, such as Barishal's being used in Dhaka and Rajshahi's in Cumilla, to ensure fairness.
Highlighting regional disparities, he said urban areas continued to outperform rural ones. While Dhaka Metropolitan recorded an 84 percent pass rate, districts such as Shariatpur (42 percent), Gopalganj (42.28 percent), Kishoreganj (48.5 percent), Tangail (44 percent), and Manikganj (45 percent) lagged behind.
"The more rural the area, the more evident the shortage of teachers and educational resources. Nearly half the students failed, which is not what we desire. But these results expose the weaknesses in our education system. It's now everyone's responsibility to fix them," he said.
Earlier, the overall pass rate across 11 education boards stood at 58.83 percent.
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