HSC results

On the positive side, it has been claimed that cheating in examination halls has been contained and that might have had a bearing on the percentage of success at the tests.

But the factor that can be singled out as having caused a sizeable failure rate is the new syllabus for English and an acute shortage of qualified teachers for the subject. A huge number of students have flunked at the English exam which is but a reflection of poor standard of teaching.

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There are more things to be worried about. No fewer than 95 colleges and madrassahs have drawn a blank in terms of pass rate. Less than 20 per cent examinees have passed from 588 institutions and less than 10 per cent from a sizeable number of colleges. All this points to the presence of some dregs at the bottom of the education hourglass.

Shortage of teachers and lack of a minimum classroom engagement are maladies that could be treated with drastic measures like closing down the institutions having a hopeless academic background. But in our context, it does not appear to be the best option as resource constraints plague the sector as a whole. The best way to handle the situation is to strengthen the existing infrastructure where it has weaknesses and make sure that the prescribed standards are met by the institutions without fail.

The talent pool has also apparently shrunken with only 20 GPA-5 achievers. But we believe it might well be the result of the high achievers being strained out through a process devoid of multiple-choice questions this time around. Another development is the small number of girls in the top bracket. This is a break with the consistent pattern of top grades they had accounted for in the past.

The results are, as always, an indication of how the education system has been running. However, we believe the fault-lines have been identified and the education ministry will do its utmost to set things right as a top priority matter.