Girls continue to outshine boys
For 14 years in a row, girls have outperformed boys in terms of pass rate in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams.
They have also outshone boys in achieving GPA-5 for the third consecutive year.
The HSC results published yesterday show that the overall pass rate for girls in the nine general education boards is 78.61 percent, while it is 72.91 percent for boys. The overall pass rate is 75.90 percent.
Last year, the overall pass rate was 84.31 percent and for girls, it was 86.34 percent.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, a greater number of girls have passed the HSC exams than boys since 2010.
And 2009 was the last year that boys outperformed girls in terms of pass rate. In that year, the total pass rate was 74.85 percent, and for girls, it was 74.50 percent.
Yesterday's results shows that a total of 41,804 girls secured GPA-5 compared to 36,717 boys. A total of 78,521 students secured the highest GPA.
A total of 1,59,755 students secured GPA 5 last year; among them, 87,236 were girls. In 2021, 1,78,522 students achieved GPA 5, and 98,403 were girls among them.
Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) Executive Director Rasheda K Choudhury said girls have continued the trend of outperforming boys.
"If girls did not perform well this year, that would be surprising. They have been doing well for many years now," she said.
Rasheda, also former advisor to a caretaker government who oversaw two ministries -- primary and mass education and women and children affairs -- said government policy like providing stipends to female students has been paying off.
"To get the stipend, girls need to take part in classes regularly and their guardian can't arrange their marriage. This has changed the situation drastically," she said.
She also said the stipend got the families to act more responsibly and sensibly towards their girls.
She said the increase in the number of women teachers also helped the girls in educational institutions.
Mymensingh Education Board Chairman Prof Gazi Hasan Kamal said girls are more sincere in their studies than boys.
The SSC results that came out in July showed that, for the seventh year in a row, female students had a higher pass rate compared to their male counterparts, while they did better in achieving GPA-5 for the sixth consecutive year.
This year, 82.39 percent of girls passed the exams, while the boys' success rate was 79.34 percent. On the other hand, 88,245 girls achieved GPA-5 -- 17,270 higher than the number of boys.
In recent times, girls' education in Bangladesh has become a success story. Girls have continued to outnumber boys at primary and secondary levels, accounting for more than half of school enrollments.
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