SSC exam results

So, in spite of the slight variation in the results from year to year, the level of failure at the most widely taken public examinations happens to be around 60 per cent. What a mirror-image of national waste that is! In how many forms are we losing out?

We are wasting in terms of time, money and human resources. A poverty-stricken country like us can ill-afford such a huge wastes. To top it off, the generations of failed students from one set of public examinations to another are exerting tremendous pressure on the already heavily burdened education system.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

We are heartened by the fact that a total of 1392 students obtained highest Grade Point Average (GPA) or A+ in this year's examinations as against only 330 last year. We congratulate the high achievers, although it needs to be mentioned that for the last two years in a row girl candidates have not fared all that better at the top compared with the boys. But to our mind what is primarily a matter of analysis is the massive failure rate because that affects our human resource development programme most intensely and extensively.

The candidates from the outlying schools have generally fared deplorably which brought down the average pass figure. Most observers see a combination of reasons behind the lackadaisical mufassil performances: mushrooming of schools on political consideration; sending up of students who failed at the qualifying tests in response to pressure from management committee members or locally influential people; poor classroom instructions; negligence on the part of both the teacher and the taught; and dearth of educational equipment and tools. One common inadequacy amongst schools has been the paucity of qualified English and Mathematics teachers.

Exam results are the ultimate manifestation of how good an education system is. This is truism in that in spite of the modifications of the exam formats we have not been able to stem the educational wastes. So, the bottom line is we reform the education system, free it from clutches of politics and make the teaching profession attractive.