TDS Desk:

Sixty six students appeared at the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam this year from Shaheed Manu Miah Government High School in the capital’s Tejgaon area and 42 of them have passed (about 64 per cent).

But only one of them secured GPA-5, the highest grade.

This correspondent talked to the school’s head teacher Rebeca Sultana on Wednesday. She said there are only seven teachers against 25 for 415 students at the school that was turned into a government institution.

Besides, most of the students are from daily wage earning families. All of this led to this result.

Also a fewer students from the Tejgaon Government High School, which is just about two kilometres away from this school, scored GPA-5. As many as 243 students took the exam from this school with 237 passed. And, 34 of them secured GPA-5. Last year, 49 students got GPA-5 from this school.

The school’s head teacher Shaheen Khan said, this time there were less candidates from the science section. This could be a reason for fewer students with GPA-5.

An analysis of the results of government secondary schools in Dhaka city shows that except for three-four schools, all of the remaining schools have very few students who obtained GPA-5.

However, except for two-three government schools, the pass rate in the state owned educational institutions is over 90 per cent.

In Dhaka city, there are 39 government secondary schools and three branches (known as feeder branches), which are ahead of private schools in terms of facilities and infrastructures. But the results in private schools, especially the percentage of students who got GPA-5, are better than those of the government schools.

Speaking about this, former director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) SS Wahiduzzaman said that accountability and care for students is less in government schools than good private schools in Dhaka.

Besides, many teachers are more interested in coaching and giving private tuition rather than teaching at schools. The way the private school management committees and head teachers supervise other teachers is also less in government schools.

The results of SSC and equivalent exams were published on 12 May. The pass rate in the SSC examination under nine general education boards was 83.77 per cent. The pass rate in Dhaka education board is nearly 84 per cent. This time 49,190 students of Dhaka board achieved GPA-5, which is over 3,000 more than last time.

An analysis of the results of 33 out of 39 government secondary schools in Dhaka city, showed that the newly established Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Government High School, located in the Ashkona Hajj Camp area, performed better in terms of average pass rate and GPA-5 holders.

A total of 133 students took the exams from this school. The pass rate is 100 per cent. Besides, 110 students scored GPA-5, which is about 83 per cent of the total candidates.

However, the number and rate of GPA-5 scorers is low in most of the older government schools. As many as 266 students took the exam from Nawabpur Government High School. Although the pass rate is more than 95 per cent, only 16 candidates got GPA-5. Whereas, 302 out of 549 candidates from Birshrestha Noor Mohammad Public College in the neighbouring area got GPA-5, which is 55 per cent.

Some 286 candidates appeared from Mohammadpur Government High School. Although the average pass rate is more than 97 per cent, only 69 students got GPA-5, which is 24 per cent of the total candidates.

However, 483 (65 per cent) out of 742 candidates from neighbouring private school Mohammadpur Preparatory School and College candidates secured GPA-5.

Another former director general of DSHE, Syed Golam Faruque, assessed that good students in Dhaka have more interests in private educational institutions due to various reasons. But the government schools are still doing better in the district towns; there the people are still interested in government schools. In fact, supervision is more stringent at private schools in Dhaka, which is lacking in government schools. (Source: A Bengali daily)