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A proper approach to evaluating answer scripts adopted by the interim government and the existing disorderly situation in the educational institutions after the past year’s political changeover were key factors that contributed to the plunge in the combined pass rate in this year’s Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent examinations,  educationists said.

According to the SSC and its equivalent examinations’ results published on July 10, the combined pass rate in 2025 is 68.45 per cent, its lowest after 2009 when the pass rate was 67.41 per cent. In 2024, the rate was 83.04 per cent.

Educationists said that under the interim government, which assumed office on August 8, 2024, after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in a student-led mass uprising, a shift in focus from the raising pass rate, a stance taken by the ousted AL regime, to the improvement in the quality of education made the proper evaluation of the answer scripts possible.

A lack of skilled teachers, especially for some subjects like mathematics and English, also contributed to the plunge in the pass rate, they added.

The number of students securing the grade point average of 5 (GPA-5) in this year also decreased to 1,39,032 compared with that of 1,82,129 in the previous year.

According to the Bangladesh Education Statistics 2023, after 2009 the combined pass rate was always about 80 per cent or above 90 per cent till 2024.

Meanwhile, between 1990 and 2008, the combined pass rate in the SSC and its equivalent exams was 30 per cent to 60 per cent with some exceptions.

‘This year’s results reflect the actual picture as this government tried to break away from the tendency to give the candidates grace marks to help them pass the exams,’ said Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education, an advocacy and campaign coalition operating in Bangladesh.

She said that a lack of skilled teachers for mathematics was behind many students’ failure in the subject.

Teachers with degrees on some subjects like mathematics and English usually do not want to stay in rural areas as they want to stay in urban areas to earn more money by tutoring students, she added.

‘Many questions raised in the past 15 years how the pass rate in the SSC exams started rising over 80 per cent while there were no such rational initiatives taken by the then government behind this jump in the pass rate,’ said BRAC University professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed.

He, also the head of the interim government-formed committee for the improvement of the quality of primary and non-formal education, said that there were widespread allegations against the previous government that it provided grace marks and higher marks to increase the pass rate and the number of GPA-5 achievers in this public exams.

Between 2010 and 2024, the highest combined pass rate was in 2021 – about 94 per cent.

Between 1990 and 2008, the highest combined pass rate was in 1994 – about 71 per cent and the lowest was in 1990 – about 32 per cent.

The Dhaka University’s Institute of Education and Research teacher, professor M Wahiduzzaman, said that the results of this year’s SSC and its equivalent exams were very good considering the overall disorder in the education sector after the student-led mass uprising in July-August, 2024.

‘Order should be established in the education sector and education should be kept out of politics,’ he added.

A retired senior teacher of Udayan Uchcha Madhyamik Bidyalaya in the capital Dhaka said that during the ousted Awami League regime, the examiners were asked to give 2 to 3 as grace marks if someone lacked that to pass any subject.

‘This time we heard that the examiners evaluated the answer scripts without giving any grace marks,’ the former teacher added.

During a views-exchange meeting with journalists on July 10, Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee chief professor Khondokar Ehsanul Kabir, also the chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, said that they were not under compulsion to reduce or increase the pass rate or the number of GPA-5 achievers.

‘We told the examiners to conduct the evaluation process properly,’ he added.

Rasheda K Choudhury said that no research was conducted on how the combined pass rate had surged in the past 15 years.

‘Even with double GPA-5 [one in SSC and equivalent exams and another in HSC and equivalent exams], many students could not get admitted in public universities,’ she mentioned.

She blamed a shortage of subject-based teachers at the secondary level, a lack of skilled teachers and a lack of proper monitoring on the educational institutions for the situation.

Professor Wahiduzzaman said discipline in the education sector was yet to return after the political changeover on August 5 past year.

‘How can the teachers teach if there is no environment for that?’ he questioned.

Professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed urged the government to conduct a research on this year’s results to find out the reasons for the plunge in the combined pass rate.

Campaign for Popular Education deputy director (research and advocacy) Mostafizur Rahaman blamed weakness in mathematics subject, learning losses during the Covid pandemic, different experiments conducted on national curriculums and disruption in learning due to the past year’s uprising for the decreased pass rate.

He also said that the students and their guardians were in uncertainty for a year amid political unrests while many girl students became the victims of child marriage.