Lowest number of GPA-5 in 12 years

After witnessing two consecutive years of record numbers of GPA-5 achievers from the technical board, this year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam saw the lowest number of GPA-5 achievers from the board in 12 years.

This year, only 4,078 students from the technical board have secured the highest grade point average (GPA-5), representing a significant drop compared to 2023.

A total of 18,145 students achieved GPA-5 in 2023 and 18,655 in 2022, which were marked as the highest in the board's history.

While 1.22 lakh students appeared for SSC this year, with 99,721 achieving passing marks, the number of highest GPA achievers fell dramatically.

The last time the technical board witnessed such a low number of GPA-5 recipients was in 2012, with only 3,524 students achieving the top score.

The following year it saw a slight increase to 4,172, but the numbers have steadily climbed since then, according to data from Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.

Students under this board also recorded the lowest passing rate in the last four years -- 81.38 percent. In 2020, the rate was 72.70 percent.

Asked about low performance, Chairman of Technical Education Board Prof Md Mamun Ul Hoque said, "It's unexpected, but we have to consider the fact that this batch had to appear for the exam under the full syllabus, which is a first after the pandemic."

"These are the students who suffered from the pandemic, which caused significant learning gaps. We need one or two more years to recover from this gap and reach normalcy," he said.

While the technical board suffered, the madrasa board saw a significant increase in achieving the highest grade in this year's SSC.

This year, with 2.84 lakh students attending the exams, 14,206 of them secured GPA-5, which is over two times higher than last year's 6,213.

It is also the third highest in the last 13 years.

The passing rate of madrasah students also increased to 79.66 percent from last year's 74.7 percent.

In both of these boards, girls did better in both passing and achieving GPA-5.