Thursday, 17 July, 2025
Students who sat the tests for Secondary School Certificate in Sylhet have performed poorly than their peers in the other boards in five out of the last six years, raising some serious questions over standards of education in the region.
Teachers say the socio-economic condition of the region of Haor, or backswamps, and tea estates with impoverished workers is one of the key reasons behind the poor lacklustre show by the students.
Humanities students are not as attentive as those from science and business studies streams, which is another reason cited by the teachers.
Some blame a lack of qualified math and English teachers for the poor performance of the students.
This year, the SSC pass rate in Sylhet was 76.6 percent against an average of around 81 percent in all nine boards.
Only 5,452 students in Sylhet have secured GPA 5, while the number is 46,303 in Dhaka.
Sylhet stood second only in 2021, when the students did not have to take math or English tests amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Matiur Rahman, acting headmaster of Soroker Bazar High School at Dighirpar in Kanaighat, said his institution is hamstrung by a teacher crisis.
Other teachers face the pressure as five posts are vacant, he said.
“And the region has been deprived of education for a long time. So, the parents are not so interested in their children’s education.”
Matiur said many boys or girls from poor families are absent now because they are helping their families cultivate rice.
Pintu Chandra Sheel, assistant teacher of Richi High School in Habiganj, believes humanities students are not so serious in their study, a reality that is affecting the overall results.
A majority of the students take humanities because they think the stream is easier than science or business studies, he said.
These students assume that they do not need to study, and ultimately they get poor grades, the teacher said.
Out of the 23 students of the school who failed SSC tests this year, 20 are from the humanities stream.
Arun Chandra Paul, exam controller of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Sylhet, said the geographic condition of Sylhet is partly to blame for the poor results.
Many students skip lessons and school tests because they live in remote Haor areas, he said.
“Qualified teachers do not want to stay in these areas,” he said, adding that many schools do not have teachers specialised in math and English.
Rasheda K Choudhury, the executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education, said the authorities should seriously look into the teacher crisis.
“In some schools, business studies teachers are giving science lessons,” she said.
Kabir Ahmed, secretary of the board, said the students got poor marks in the exams because the questions covered full syllabi after shortened ones in 2022 and 2021 amid the pandemic.
Former Dhaka University professor Syed Manzoorul Islam said the government should strengthen monitoring of the institutions in the region.
“The authorities should also monitor if the teachers are giving lessons properly or if they are properly trained in their subjects.”
Prof Manzoorul also blamed teachers for the poor results. “In manny schools, the teachers do not give proper lessons because they want the students to seek private tutoring.”
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Students who sat the tests for Secondary School Certificate in Sylhet have performed poorly than their peers in the other boards in five out of the last six years, raising some serious questions over standards of education in the region.
Teachers say the socio-economic condition of the region of Haor, or backswamps, and tea estates with impoverished workers is one of the key reasons behind the poor lacklustre show by the students.
Humanities students are not as attentive as those from science and business studies streams, which is another reason cited by the teachers.
Some blame a lack of qualified math and English teachers for the poor performance of the students.
This year, the SSC pass rate in Sylhet was 76.6 percent against an average of around 81 percent in all nine boards.
Only 5,452 students in Sylhet have secured GPA 5, while the number is 46,303 in Dhaka.
Sylhet stood second only in 2021, when the students did not have to take math or English tests amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Matiur Rahman, acting headmaster of Soroker Bazar High School at Dighirpar in Kanaighat, said his institution is hamstrung by a teacher crisis.
Other teachers face the pressure as five posts are vacant, he said.
“And the region has been deprived of education for a long time. So, the parents are not so interested in their children’s education.”
Matiur said many boys or girls from poor families are absent now because they are helping their families cultivate rice.
Pintu Chandra Sheel, assistant teacher of Richi High School in Habiganj, believes humanities students are not so serious in their study, a reality that is affecting the overall results.
A majority of the students take humanities because they think the stream is easier than science or business studies, he said.
These students assume that they do not need to study, and ultimately they get poor grades, the teacher said.
Out of the 23 students of the school who failed SSC tests this year, 20 are from the humanities stream.
Arun Chandra Paul, exam controller of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Sylhet, said the geographic condition of Sylhet is partly to blame for the poor results.
Many students skip lessons and school tests because they live in remote Haor areas, he said.
“Qualified teachers do not want to stay in these areas,” he said, adding that many schools do not have teachers specialised in math and English.
Rasheda K Choudhury, the executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education, said the authorities should seriously look into the teacher crisis.
“In some schools, business studies teachers are giving science lessons,” she said.
Kabir Ahmed, secretary of the board, said the students got poor marks in the exams because the questions covered full syllabi after shortened ones in 2022 and 2021 amid the pandemic.
Former Dhaka University professor Syed Manzoorul Islam said the government should strengthen monitoring of the institutions in the region.
“The authorities should also monitor if the teachers are giving lessons properly or if they are properly trained in their subjects.”
Prof Manzoorul also blamed teachers for the poor results. “In manny schools, the teachers do not give proper lessons because they want the students to seek private tutoring.”
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