The success rate in the secondary school certificate or SSC and equivalent exams has dropped this year due to a new method adopted to examine scripts, says Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.
“We anticipated it, but it might be surprising to others. But the new method is a progress,” he said after handing over copies of the results to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday.
Of the 1.78 million students, who took the school-leaving exams this year, 80.35 percent passed it against 88.29 percent last year.
As many as 104,761 students have scored GPA 5 out of 5, nearly 5,000 less than in 2016.
“The pass rate is less this year. One might reckon why that’s the case. The prime minister had instructed us to make sure that the answer scripts are evaluated properly,” said Nahid.
He said they have been working for the last three years to develop a ‘standard’ for grading answer scripts, which came into effect this year.
The new method ensures that the chief examiners check the scripts, according to Nahid. “We have said earlier that the chief examiners did not check the scripts but just gave a report on it.”
As part of the new evaluation method, the government trained chief examiners, who then trained the examiners.
“The chief examiners set a guideline for evaluating answer scripts before forwarding them to the examiners.”
The change was made in line with the prime minister’s advice and in consultation with academicians.
“The result of our three-year effort is that the students will be now more serious about their studies. The teachers will be sincere about teaching and grading answer scripts. Now we will get the real picture.”
