HSC examinees shine on short syllabus

Infograph: TBS

Results of the last three Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams were extraordinary compared to that in other years due to no exam in the first year of Covid and exams on short-syllabus in the next two years.

The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination could not be held in 2020 due to Covid outbreak, requiring the government to get three relevant laws amended to publish results without holding public exams during pandemic or any such act of God.

That made the 2020 HSC batch the first to get results without taking the test and see a 100% pass rate in the country's history of public exams. The results were calculated from the examinees' scores in the previous two public exams – SSC and JSC.

All the examinees of the batch – roughly 13.66 lakh – passed the HSC and equivalent exams that year, with 1.62 lakh scoring the highest grade – GPA-5.

Then came 2021, also disrupted by waves of Covid outbreaks, and HSC examinees were allowed to sit for exams for three selected subjects on short syllabus, only for one hour and 30 minutes each exam – half of the usual exam hour.

There was no test for compulsory subjects such as Bangla and English. Nearly 13.71 lakh students took the test that year. And over 95% of them passed, with 1.89 lakh GPA-5s.

The pandemic was almost tamed when the 2022 HSC exam was held last November. The number of examinees was lower by nearly 2 lakh than the previous year's.

The average pass rate this year is about 86%, more than 9 percentage points lower than the previous year.

But the rate still remains higher than the pre-Covid years' average. In 2019, the year before the Covid outbreak, the HSC pass rate was 74% and it crossed 78% in only one year since 2013.

Learning loss was the most discussed topic during the pandemic both locally and globally, and studies estimated that it may take generations to make up for the skill vacuums created by the prolonged closures of classrooms.

A Unesco report identified Bangladesh's school closure since 17 March 2020 as the longest in the world, with classes suspended for 76 weeks till 30 August 2021.

Data shows this was the period when HSC exams had the most shining results – with record high pass rates and galore of GPA-5.

Educationists question evaluation method

Education board chiefs have argued that short syllabus was a temporary process in a crisis moment like Covid-19 and it would not affect the quality education, but educationists are not convinced, and say it is not a proper evaluation method of examination. 

This year, 1,76,282 students achieved GPA-5, 13,000 less compared to the previous year. However, it is still more than three times the average number of GPA-5 achievers in the pre-Covid years.  

Board officials acknowledged that short-syllabus was a key factor that boosted the results this year too.

Prof Md Jamal Naser, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Cumilla, told TBS, "Short syllabus is one of the reasons for the good results. This year we took 50-mark exams on a short syllabus and later converted it to 100 marks. We selected 50% segments of the books, which were most important, to prepare the syllabus."

Asked if the short syllabus will affect the quality of education, Prof Jamal Naser said, "I do not think that the quality will fall. There is no scope of underestimating our children. They are very talented."

However, Dr Md Sreajul Islam, a professor at the Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka, told TBS, "Taking exams on short syllabus is not a way of making proper assessment. Through this, a thought of brief syllabus is inculcated in our students, which is harmful for the future.

"Others will have a negative impression about those who have passed the exams on short syllabus this year. The students will also suffer from an inferiority complex. This will further reduce the quality of our education, which has already been declining gradually."

Educationists were always concerned about the evaluation method for assessing grades for students who did not take the test in 2020 and holding exams for limited subjects and on short-syllabus in the next few years.

The evaluation method would fail to do justice to real talents and tests on shortened syllabus or a few subjects would make it difficult for universities to pick genuinely qualified students to enroll.

Universities should ignore HSC results and must hold written admission tests for fresh enrolment, educationist Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam had told TBS after the 2021 HSC results that showed 100% pass without taking any test.

Similar views have been expressed this year too.

Education reseracher Prof Sreajul Islam said universities must not take any test on short syllabus.

"Taking tests on a short syllabus is never a proper evaluation. This confines students' thoughts to a shortened domain, which is harmful for the future," he told TBS, stating that it would further contribute to the eroding quality of education.

Education minister for Uni entry test on short syllabus

When concerns regarding the quality of the students achieving good results without test were aired after the 2020 HSC results, education minister Dipu Moni had come to the rescue of such students for the job entry test.

This year, while analysing the results yesterday, Dipu Moni was sympathetic to those who passed the HSC 2022 and scored well and expressed her hope that public universities will hold admission tests on short syllabus.

"We recently discussed the matter with the vice-chancellors. We requested them to take this year's admission tests based on the revised syllabus of the HSC examination," she told reporters after announcing HSC results at International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka on Wednesday.

One-third of GPA-5 achievers not to get admission in preferred institutions

There is no shortage of seats in higher educational institutions for the academic year 2022-23, but not all students with GPA-5 will be able to get admission in their desired institutions as the number of seats in good institutions is about one-third less than the total GPA-5 achievers.

According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), there are more than 13 lakh seats for admission into all the public and private colleges and universities across the country, while 10.12 lakh students passed HSC this year. So about three lakh seats will remain vacant.

General public universities, engineering universities, medical and dental colleges and top 10 private universities have around 130,000 seats, but the number of students who achieved GPA-5 this year was 1,76,282, which means almost 50,000 of the top scorers will not be able to get enrolled in the most prestigious institutions.