C T Online Desk: More than 80 per cent of the GPA 5 achievers in the Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations this year will not be able to enrol at the best colleges around the country as the number of Class XI seats in the institutions are far short of the number of high scorers.
‘Every year, many GPA 5 achievers cannot get admitted to the so-called good colleges due to the crisis of seats,’ Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Choudhury told New Age.
‘The public examinations in Bangladesh are entirely based on memorisation, which should be only a very small part of the overall competency evaluation system,’ Dhaka University Institute of Education and Research professor Mohammad Tariq Ahsan said, adding that, students, therefore, go for coaching, guidebooks and even immoral means to obtain GPA 5.
This is why the current method of evaluating competencies of students and thus giving GPA scores should be overhauled, he added.
According to different education board officials, many more students than usual obtained GPA 5 this year due to the short syllabuses and brief exam time.
If GPA 5 achievers enrol at average colleges, then these colleges will also turn into good ones, some said.
In this year’s SSC and equivalent examinations, a staggering 2,69,602 candidates obtained GPA 5 while the figure was 1,83,340 in 2021.
According to the education ministry’s college admission website [http://xiclassadmission.gov.bd/], there are total 44,670 seats available in the 94 colleges across the country which have decided GPA 5 as the minimum requirement for admission to Class XI.
These colleges are regarded as the best colleges due to their results, quality of teaching and environment.
Comparing between the number of GPA 5 achievers and the number of available seats in these colleges, it appears that 83.4 per cent of the students receiving GPA 5 cannot enrol at these institutions this year.
The chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Rajshahi, Professor Habibur Rahman, said that they had recently increased the number of seats in good colleges under the Rajshahi Board, adding that, the huge number of additional students will create infrastructural problems and crisis of teachers for the colleges.
Rasheda K Choudhury, also a former caretaker government adviser, told New Age on Monday that the number of both seats and skilled teachers was few in so-called good educational institutions.
‘We need a radical reform in the evaluation method,’ she said, asking that why all educational institutions should not be good institutions to be able to impart students quality education.
The chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Sylhet, Professor Rama Bijoy Sarker, claimed that the previous unhealthy competition for securing high numbers was removed through the evaluation method based on GPA scores.
‘We need to change our outlook to the effect that every student needs to enrol at a good college and other [not good] colleges will also become good if GPA 5 students enrol at these,’ he observed.
He, however, pointed out that the students got some facilities like short syllabuses and brief exam time on account of the Covid pandemic, resulting in an increase in the number of GPA 5 scorers this year.
DU IER professor Tariq Ahsan said that the overall process of awarding GPA 5 to examinees in Bangladesh was entirely faulty.
The existing evaluation system stands in the way of students developing competencies, skills, values and attitudes, he said.
Board-wise, the Dhaka Board has the highest 64,984 GPA 5 achievers this year, followed by the Rajshahi Board with 42,517, the Jashore Board with 30,892, the Dinajpur Board with 25,586, the Cumilla Board with 19,998, the Chattogram Board with, the Mymensingh Board with 15,216, the Barishal Board with 10,068 and the Sylhet Board with 7,565 GPA 5 achievers.
According to the education ministry, 29 colleges under the in Dhaka Board are seeking GPA 5 as the minimum admission requirement for Class XI while the number of available seats is 21,608.
With same minimum admission requirement, 23 colleges under the Rajshahi Board have 7,885 seats, 10 colleges under the Jashore Board 2,685 have seats, 12 colleges under the Dinajpur Board have 4,495 seats, two colleges under the Cumilla Board have 620 seats, 10 colleges under the Chattogram Board have 4,695 seats, one college under the Mymensingh Board has 622 seats, four colleges under the Barishal Board have 1,060 seats while three colleges under the Sylhet Board have 1,000 seats.
MM Kaiser, parent of a student who has obtained GPA 5 in the SSC examination this year, said that it was unfortunate that guardians were in tension if their children could be admitted to a good college even though they obtained GPA 5.
‘There are a small number of seats in good colleges,’ he said, adding, ‘If we are in such tensions, then what about the guardians of the students who did not get GPA 5?’
Dhaka College vice-principal ATM Moinul Hossain said that the perception of good colleges should change as the good students would get good result from any college in the country.
‘We need to see if the colleges have a good educational environment and skilled teachers,’ he viewed.
Professor Tariq Ahsan also pointed out that some 60 to 80 per cent of the students in developed countries pursue technical education and the rest go for higher education while in Bangladesh the authorities only put emphasis on mainstream higher education.
He reminded that different estimates showed that only 25–30 per cent of the students enrolling in primary schools eventually went for higher education in Bangladesh.
‘Even those who want to go for higher education cannot get facilities to do that. For example, they often get few seats in colleges,’ he said.
The new national curriculum focuses on competency-based learning instead of rote learning and it will be compulsory for Class IX and X students to enrol on a vocational course, he mentioned.
In the new curriculum, he said, the evaluation will not be based on GPA scores, adding that, the student performance will be evaluated according to their competencies in knowledge, values and perspective at the beginner, intermediate and expert levels.
Rasheda K Choudhury further said that about 90 per cent educational institutions at the secondary level were private and there was anarchy in many of them because of admission business and other irregularities due to lack of government monitoring.
These institutions should be brought to accountability, she observed.
Currently, the process of admission to Class XI is going on.
Students applied for college admission online between December 8 and 15.
After the selection process is done in different stages, the admission process will be completed between January 22 and 26, 2023 while classes will start on February 1.
