Academic Disaster
HSC scripts evaluated impartially this year, says government
After publishing of results of the HSC exams under Dhaka Board on Saturday, a guardian seen crying Viqarunnisa School and College, October 31. Photo: Ashraful Alam.
Out of about 1.25 million examinees, nearly 600,000 have failed. Such an academic disaster has occurred in this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations. Explaining the cause of this disaster, the government said that the scripts were evaluated "impartially." At the same time, an effort was made to move away from the tendency of showing a higher pass rate.
The results of 11 education boards across the country were published today, Saturday, around 11 am. The overall pass rate in the results is 52.12 percent.
In the 2025 examinations, the pass rate was 58.83 percent. That is, compared to last year, the pass rate has decreased by 6.71 percentage points. This year's pass rate is the lowest in the last 22 years. Before this, the lowest pass rate was in 2004. That year, the pass rate in the HSC and equivalent examinations was 47.74 percent. A total of 3,036 students had obtained GPA-5.
At the results publication event, the Prime Minister's Education Advisor, Mahdi Amin, said that just as the examinations were completed properly through the collective efforts of teachers and all concerned, the evaluation of examination scripts was also done with full impartiality.
According to the adviser, avoiding the previous tendency of artificially increasing GPA-5 or pass rates through script evaluation, fully merit-based and neutral evaluation has been ensured.
In the 2026 HSC and equivalent examinations, the failure rate among male students is higher than among female students. According to the statistics in the published results, this year 52.25 percent of male students among the total examinees have failed. The failure rate among female students is 43.69 percent.
This year, 646,685 students have passed the HSC and equivalent examinations. A total of 40,084 students have obtained GPA-5. A total of 594,113 students have failed.
While the failure rate among male students is 52.25 percent, for female students this rate is 43.69 percent. That is, the failure rate among male students is 8.56 percentage points higher than among female students.
The Prime Minister's Education Advisor has said that like the SSC, in the HSC examinations too, there is an opportunity for full script re-examination even for those who fail.
In this regard, Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Hoque Milon said that appropriate measures have been taken for transparency in script evaluation. If inconsistencies are found, students can re-examine those matters. Then we will be able to say what happened in the days ahead.
"However concerning this result may be, we are worried, but we have not yet been able to determine whether there are errors in the results. It will be understood after re-examination," the Education Minister was saying.Meanwhile, in this year's HSC and equivalent examinations, examinees who have failed in a maximum of two subjects are getting the opportunity to retake examinations only in the failed subjects within one month. This year, the number of examinees who failed in one or two subjects is 422,905.Currently, in public examinations like the SSC and HSC, if an examinee fails in one or more subjects, they must sit for the examination again after one year (in the next year's examination). In that case, they have the opportunity to take examinations only in the failed subjects or, if they wish, in all subjects.But because of failing in one or two subjects, a student has to wait a long year. This creates extra mental pressure in addition to falling behind in academic life.Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milon said that among the failed students, those who have failed in one or two subjects will be given the opportunity to take examinations again. There are plans to organize these examinations within the next one month.According to the announced results, this year the pass rate in the Cumilla Board is 48.04 percent. At the same time, 1,313 students in this board have obtained GPA-5. Among these, the pass rate in the Cumilla Board is 48.04 percent. At the same time, 1,313 students in this board have obtained GPA-5.In addition, the pass rate in the Barishal Board is 44.84 percent and 5,950 students have obtained GPA-5. The pass rate in the Jashore Board is 44.92 percent. And 3,228 students have obtained GPA-5.At the same time, the pass rate in the Dinajpur Board is 45.98 percent and 2,953 students have obtained GPA-5. In addition, in the Sylhet Board the rate is 50.90 percent and 1,204 students have obtained GPA-5.Moreover, in the Rajshahi Board the rate is 45.06 percent and 4,520 students have obtained GPA-5. In the Madrasah Education Board, the pass rate is 61.07 percent and 3,250 students have obtained GPA-5.On the other hand, in the BM-Vocational (Technical) examination, although the pass rate has decreased this year compared to last year, the number of students obtaining GPA-5 has increased. In this year's examination held under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, 49.43 percent of examinees have passed. A total of 1,886 students have obtained the highest result, GPA-5.An analysis of the results of overseas centres shows that this year there were 230 examinees at 8 overseas centres. Among them, 209 have passed. A total of 21 have failed at overseas centres. The pass rate is 90.87 percent. One institution has achieved a 100 percent pass rate.And in the Madrasah Education Board, the pass rate is 61.07 percent and 3,250 students have obtained GPA-5.
