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The results of this year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations were published on Thursday, revealing a pass rate of 68.45 per cent -- a significant decline from last year's 83.04 per cent.
A total of 139,032 candidates achieved a GPA-5, the highest grade, across the country's 11 education boards.
Among these top scorers, 73,616 are girls and 65,416 are boys, continuing the trend of female students outperforming male students for the tenth consecutive year.
The pass rate for girls stood at 71.03 per cent, while boys recorded a pass rate of 65.88 per cent.
Khondokar Ehsanul Kabir, president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and chairman of the Dhaka Education Board, presented the results at a press briefing in Dhaka.
He highlighted the consistent academic excellence of female students, despite an overall decline in pass rate and GPA-5 achievers compared to last year.
The SSC and equivalent exams began on April 10 and concluded on May 13. A total of 1,928,970 students registered for the exams, including 967,739 females and 961,231 males.
On the first day, 26,928 students were absent from 3,715 exam centres across the country. The number of absentees grew in the next few days. In total, around 1.9 million students took part in the exams.
This year, both the pass rate and the number of GPA-5 achievers dropped notably from the previous year, when the pass rate was 83.04 per cent and 182,129 candidates earned GPA-5.
The pass rate declined by 14.59 percentage points, while the number of GPA-5 achievers decreased by nearly 43,000 students.
Mr Kabir said, "No grace or additional marks were awarded this year. We made a concerted effort to evaluate answer scripts based purely on merit, without any leniency."
He added, "We won't comment on how results were prepared in previous years under the Awami League regime. This year's results are based on proper evaluation, with no external influence."
He stressed there was no pressure from higher authorities. "We were instructed to publish the results as they are. Examiners strictly followed guidelines, and no special directions were given to soften grading.
"Students received marks exactly as per their performance; no liberal policy was applied," he added.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com