Every year a large number of students secure the highest GPA-5 in SSC and HSC examinations, but when they sit for Dhaka University (DU) admission tests their performance falls flat on its face. Around 1.90 lakh students have obtained GPA-5 achieving more than 80% marks in HSC and equivocal examinations in the recent year but the students do not gather 40% mark for passing the DU test. Educationists said there is an actual loophole in our evaluation system and even the admission tests do not stand out. According to the DU admission office, this year a total of 280,076 students from different five units sat in the admission test. Of them, only 9.41 percent of students pass.
At all levels, students now resort to unfair means very casually to do well in board exams and this behaviour is sanctioned and encouraged by their institutions. The school or college they study in contacts the institution that is going to be the venue for board exams and persuades the host institution to show leniency while invigilating. It is a matter of prestige and cold hard cash. Educational institutions like to boast that they have a high passing rate and that tons of their students have got GPA-5. It helps them attract more students.
The dramatic increase in both the passing rate and GPA-5 numbers cannot be explained by these factors alone. When the current grading system was introduced at the secondary level in Bangladesh in 2001, about 0.6 million students participated in SSC or equivalent examinations that year and 35.22% passed. This year the pass rate stood at a staggering 93.58.
Updating and upgrading the curriculum can certainly help improve the situation but ensuring that teachers get proper training is paramount if we want a way out of the current situation. The government must opt for quality education not for GPA-5 achiever numbers, while teachers’ moral standards and standard testing system need to be upgraded.
