THE results of Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations published on Monday exposed that rural-urban divide in education widened. Students of rural districts lag behind their fellows in the cities in terms of pass rate and highest grade point average 5.
This year, the combined pass rate is 82.2 per cent and the number of students securing GPA 5 is 1,05,594. Under Dhaka Board, 88.21 per cent students from the capital city passed the SSC exam while 66.51 per cent students from Madaripur, 67.02 per cent from Faridpur and 70.45 per cent from Shariatpur. In capital, highest 18.71 per cent examinees achieved GPA 5. The lowest percentage of GPA 5 achievers was in Shariatpur 1.01 per cent, followed by Munshiganj 1.24 per cent and Rajbari 1.55 per cent.
While the administration constantly trumpets about the need to remove discrimination between rural and urban areas most of the educational institutions having less than 50 per cent pass rate are from the rural areas. It’s the same story about trying to improve the infrastructures and teachers in rural areas. Academics and Education officials have blamed shortage of facilities, competent teachers and low income of the families of students living in rural areas for the persisting gap in the results. The academics also alleged that the disparity was on the rise following commercialisation of education.
The rural citizens find themselves in a peculiar cycle as their low incomes don’t enable them to get good teachers for their children. Thus a vicious cycle of poverty is generated as the children don’t get quality education and are unable to access high quality tertiary education themselves. Thus the lack of resources of parents sends their kids into a vicious cycle of poverty and deprivation.
But this was not the case in the 1960s because education was not commercialised then as it is now. Thus the time remains a mere memory. To correct the lack of resources such as competent and sufficient teachers more allocations must be made in the Education sector, more verified and standard questions must be set in the examinations and an improved evaluation system must be implemented to address the disparities.
