A student of Ideal School, Motijheel, sprays a fizzy drink in jubilance yesterday as she secured GPA-5 in this year's SSC exams of Dhaka Board. Photo: Rashed Sumon

The number of female candidates in this year's SSC examinations in most general education boards was higher than male students but they couldn't match the performance of their male mates.
The examination results showed that the pass rate of female students under five general education boards is lower by 5.58 percentage point than the male students. The number of female students was 8,001 above the male students.
About 1,96,075 female students took the examination under Comilla, Chittagong, Barisal, Sylhet and Dinajpur Education Boards while the number of male students was 1,88,074.
Of them, 72.63 percent of the females and 78.27 percent of the males passed the exams, say the stats.
The average pass percentage of SSC, SSC (vocational) and Dakhil examinations under 10 education boards, showed a tremendous boost in pass rate that stands at 79.98 percent, 9.09 percent higher than last year's.
As in the previous years, the pass percentage of girl students this year is less than boys. Pass percentage of male and female students this year is 81.84 and 77.95. The pass percentage of female students was 68.41 in 2009, 70.45 in 2008, 55.47 in 2007 and 59.75 in 2006, said the stats.
The number of female students with GPA-5 is also less than male students in all education boards.
The girls of science group, however, are a bit ahead of boy students with an average 89.85 percent pass in the eight general education boards while it is 89.5 in the case of boys.
The pass rate for the girls of science was the highest 93.16 in Barisal while the lowest is 83.57 in Dinajpur.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, former adviser to primary and mass education ministry, said the trend has been there for the last few years.
Although girls are doing well in obtaining top positions, they still lag behind in terms of average result, she said.
"Stipend has become exemplary in ensuring their participation but it is not enough. We have to focus more on quality education," the former adviser added.
Rajshahi Education Board performed better this year than seven other general education boards. The board had the lowest pass percentage last year. Of the examinees under the board, 85.61 percent passed the exams this year. It was 58.41 percent last year.
Dinajpur Education Board had the lowest 71.70 percent of successful students.
Board Chairman Dipokendra Nath Das said he had regularly interacted with the students of class X of over 100 institutions and tried to solve their problems.
"Many students do not feel free to share everything with their teachers. So I listened to their problems and later discussed those with the teachers to solve them," he said.
It is not the board's only duty to hold and publish exam results, rather it should work as a bridge between the students and teachers, the board chairman said.
The Madrasa Board this year did exceptionally well compared to the other nine education boards.
REASONS BEHIND RECORD-BREAKING RESULT
Board chairmen, teachers and students pointed out several reasons behind this year's record-breaking results. They include students' clear notion about GPA-5, equal emphasis on every subject and regular lessons in classroom.
The examiners' flexibility in giving marks also had an impact on such a big success, said officials at the Dhaka Education Board.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said they had taken several steps to check drop out and ensure proper education.
Besides, the ministry asked all institutions to give special attention to English and Mathematics as many students fail in the two subjects, he said.
The minister said this year the avarage pass percentage both in English 1st paper and 2nd paper is 87.08 while it was 74.39 last year under Dhaka board.
On the other hand, the pass rate in Mathematics leapt to 88.03 percent from last year's 86.91.
Dhaka Education Board Chairman Prof Fahima Khatun said providing training to teachers contributed greatly to the success, apart from the government's firm role in ensuring lessons in classroom.
She said it is needless to say that English and Mathematics are the decisive factors in achieving good result, as most of the students are scared of them.
The students studied well as the government had gone tough on copying or other dishonest means during exams, she said.
"We have provided training to teachers especially in rural areas to improve their quality," she said.
This year students from rural areas did remarkably well. Now the main task is to retain the quality, she added.
CONCERN OVER COLLEGE ADMISSION
The big success in SSC exams also causes concern for many as a large number of successful students now have to compete harder to get admitted to reputed colleges.
There are about 92,386 seats in government and 3.70 lakh in non-government colleges across the country. In Dhaka, the number of colleges stands at 135 with 39,000 seats, said officials at the education ministry.
About 3.70 lakh students secured GPA-5 and GPA 5-4 while the number of seats in reputed colleges is nearly 40,000.