Although the number of highest grade achievers in the SSC, HSC and equivalent examinations is increasing significantly every year, educationists and experts opine that it could not ensure quality education as almost three-fourths of the top grade achievers failed to even obtain the pass marks in the university admission tests in the recent years.
The number of students who have achieved GPA-5 or the highest grade in the Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations has increased by 28.7 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
Educationists said that the quality of education is questioned when the students who obtained GPA-5 could not even secure at least the minimum qualifying marks in the university admission tests.
According to them, where the main problem lies in the teaches’ incapability of teaching the students properly, as so far only 58 percent of the teachers across the country have been able to understand the creative method of education which has been introduced around 12 years ago. The problem is more acute in rural areas.
In addition, questions are prepared in the same standard and the test-papers are checked on the same scale throughout the country.
“Each examiner needs to check over 2000 copies over the span of a week (some get even less). All these examiners care for is getting the job done, so they don’t even go through every individual copy; they’re marked according to the neatest handwriting and the thickest answer piles,” a teacher said.
Muhammad Saiful Islam, a teacher of Agarani Model School and College told Bangladesh Post, “Only quantity is increasing, not quality. Students in rural areas are lagging behind the urban students, and the gap is widening day by day.”
“Lack of skilled teachers, libraries, laboratories, and poor academic environment in the rural area schools are mostly responsible for poor performances of their students,” he added.
He also said, “Students from rich families are studying either abroad or in the English medium institutions with international standards. The students from middle and lower-middle-class families only have to bear the brunt of the flaws in the education system.”
The government introduced the creative method of education instead of the traditional method in 2008. However, only 58 percent of teachers across the country have been able to understand the method so far. This information has come up in the government survey itself.
According to the 2019 report of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), about 58.27 percent of teachers can formulate questions in the creative method.
The remaining 41.73 percent of teachers cannot prepare questions on creative subjects. Of these, 13.12 percent are in critical condition. Such teachers cannot create question papers in a new way. They bought ‘readymade’ questions from various teachers’ associations and took exams for the students.
The remaining 28.61 percent of teachers prepared partial question papers with the help of teachers from other schools. The survey was conducted in some 6,995 secondary schools of nine regions under DSHE.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique told Bangladesh Post, “Quality education cannot be ensured without qualified teachers. There is a lack of qualified teachers in our educational institutions. The salary of the teachers in primary, secondary, and higher secondary level is very low. As a result, meritorious students and qualified persons do not want to be a school teacher. Only those who do not get a job in other sectors come to this profession.”
About GPA-5 achievers, he said, “They may not get a chance in public universities as a large number of students compete for a limited number of seats. But, it is quite unfortunate that a large number of GPA-5 achievers could not obtain the minimum pass parks (40 percent) of admission tests which only prove that their merits have not been properly judged in the SSC and HSC examinations.”
They obtained the highest grade but failed to do well when they had to answer unfamiliar questions, he continued.
He suggested ensuring the international standard education system as well as evaluation of examination so that Bangladeshi students can do well at the international level.
Educationists said the number of seats in the university may be limited but the students should have secured at least the minimum qualifying marks.
They raised the question that if the GPA-5 holders fail to pass university admission tests how they will compete at the international level and what will be the condition of other students who did not achieve a good result.
Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury of Dhaka University told Bangladesh Post, “The pass percentage and GPA-5 have increased in the SSC and HSC examinations but the quality has not improved.”
“We did have doubts about the quality of students passing the SSC and HSC examinations. The admission test has only bolstered that,” he added.
About the reason, Professor Serajul Islam said, “Students are more inclined towards attending coaching centres to learn the trick of obtaining better marks than attending school class. Also, answer papers are evaluated liberally,” he said.
Not alone in Dhaka University, situations in the admission tests of other public universities are almost the same.
About 82.9 percent of the students who took part in the admission tests of Dhaka University in the 2019-2020 academic year for higher education under different units, could not obtain pass marks.
Besides, 87.33 percent of students in 2018-2019 and 90 percent of students in 2017-2018 academic years failed to obtain the pass marks in the DU admission test where most the admission seekers are the top GPA holders (Got GPA-5 in SSC or HSC or both).
Last year, a total of 105,594 students got GPA-5 across the country. And this year, the number has increased by 30,304 to 135,898.
