The success rate in this year's SSC examinations has hit a five-year low in Chittagong.

It fell around 8.5 percentage points to 75.5 percent from last year's 83.99 percent. The pass rate was 90.45 percent in 2016, 82.77 in 2015 and 91.4 in 2014.

Md Tawarik Alam, acting exam controller of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Chittagong, announced the result yesterday.

He said they found four reasons behind the lower pass rate.

“Rumours of question leak; students' poor performance in math and humanities; poor results of students in three hill districts; and a lack of quality teachers in remote hill areas -- all these had a cumulative effect on the results,” he said.

The number of GPA-5 achievers also dropped. This year, 8,094 students got GPA-5 while it was 8,344 last year.

Meanwhile, students expelled for adopting unfair means also rose to 75, highest in the last five years.

According to the board's data, number of educational institutions with cent percent pass rate also dropped. This year, the number stands at 27 compared to last year's 56.

At least 13.5 lakh students appeared at this year's exam from 1,023 schools in Chittagong.