Rural schools still lag far behind

The picture remains the same.

Despite government efforts to improve the overall standard of education, rural schools continue to stay way behind their urban counterparts in terms of success in public examinations.

It is evident in this year's SSC exam results that the traditionally renowned schools, particularly in metropolitan areas, remain the best performers, retaining their positions for years.

Although the total and successful female examinees in this year's exams have outnumbered their male counterparts, they trail in pass rate and also in terms of the number of GPA-5 achievers.

With 96.35 percent success rate, students of science group continued to outstrip and do better than those of other groups. It is 79.32 percent in humanities group and 86.93 in business studies. Overall, 86.72 percent students passed in eight general education boards.

RURAL SCHOOLS FALL BEHIND

The list of top-20 institutions under each board, prepared by the education ministry on the basis of the results, shows the urban schools, particularly those in the metropolitan cities, are the best.

And most of the 1, 47,278 students who failed are from the rural schools, sources in the boards said.

Of the top 160 institutions under the eight general education boards, 97 are either state-run or specialised institutions considered the best in the districts with most of their students coming from well-off families.

Most of the remaining ones are either in district or upazila headquarters.

The highest pass rate in the capital is 94.14 percent while the lowest is 81.98 in Sariatpur under Dhaka Board. Of the 36,801 students who got GPA-5 under Dhaka board, 18,462 are from Dhaka metropolitan area.

Noted educationist Syed Manzoorul Islam said there was less investment in rural schools which is why quality teachers are not willing to work there. "That is why rural schools are not doing well."

He suggested the government allocate more money for education, especially in rural education, to make sure that trained and quality teachers stay in rural areas.

However, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the schools in rural areas were gradually doing better. "It is a long process. There was a time when schools had a lack of students, but now we have been able to take children to schools and retain them."

GIRLS LAGGING BEHIND

This year, 11, 08,683 students took the SSC exams under the eight general education boards -- 5,60,321 girls and 5,48,362 boys.

Of the 9,61,405 students that passed, 4, 83,470 are girls (86.28 percent) and 4,77,935 boys (87.16 percent).

The male students also dominated the highest grades (GPA-5) under all the education boards. Of the 93,631 GPA-5 achievers, 44,793 are girls and 48,838 boys.

Last year, 5, 51,972 girls took the exam and their pass rate was 92.12 percent. The number of boys taking the test was 5, 35, 898, with 93.24 percent success rate.

Among the 1, 22,313 GPA-5 achievers in 2014, 57,899 were girls and 64,414 boys.

Manzoorul Islam, who is a professor of English at Dhaka University, said there is no discrimination between boys and girls regarding school admission. But since girls usually do a lot of household work, they might not be able to beat boys.

SCIENCE TAKES THE LEAD

A total of 3, 21,214 science students took the exams under the eight boards. Of them, 3, 09, 495 passed the test (96.35 percent) with 86,275 students achieving GPA-5.

From humanities group, highest 4, 29, 302 students took the test. Of them, 3, 40, 539 passed (79.32 percent) and only 1,207 got GPA-5.

As many as 3, 58,167 students sat for the exam from business studies with 3,11,371 coming out successful (86.93 percent) and 6,149 getting GPA-5.