Girls outshine boys in pass rate

Girls outshined boys in pass rate while boys did better in achieving highest Grade Point Average 5 in this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations published on Wednesday.

Both the trends have remained the same since 2015 while the educationists said that girls were still lagging behind boys in achieving better results due to existing social norms.

The results were published on Wednesday.

This year, 76.44 per cent girls and 71.67 per cent boys passed the examinations in the combined result.

Separately in all eight general boards, one madrassah and one technical education board, girls did better than boys.

Under eight general boards, 74.84 per cent girls and 68.91 boys passed, under the madrassah board, 89.27 per cent girls and  87.99 per cent and under the technical board, 87.58 per cent girls and 80.57 boys passed the examinations.

In combined results, 70.23 per cent girls and 69.04 per cent boys passed in 2015, 75.6 per cent girls and 73.93 per cent boys passed in 2016, 70.43 per cent girls and 67.61 per cent boys passed in 2017 and 69.72 per cent girls and 63.88 per cent boys passed in 2018.

Meanwhile this year, 24,576 boys archived GPA 5 and the number of girls who secured the same grade stands at 22,710.

Previously, 23,293 boys and 19,601 girls in 2015, 32,381 boys and 25,895 girls in 2016, 20,535 boys and 17,434 girls in 2017 and 15,581 boys and 13,681 girls in 2018 secured GPA 5.

Professor Mohammad Kaykobad of Computer Science and Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology told New Age on Wednesday that the girls usually do better in study as most boys were engaged more in outdoor activities.

‘In rural areas the families are usually hesitant in letting their daughters study at this stage due to social pressure to get them married,’ he said.

As a result the girls usually lag behind boys in achieving better results, the professor added.

Dhaka University Women and Gender Studies department former chair and associate professor Syed Saikh Imtiaz said that in Bangladesh there was a general tendency to give emphasis on educating the boys than the girls.

‘A greater number of good colleges are available for boys in the city and the situation is worse in the rural areas,’ he said and added that sometimes male students studied in different cities away from home, which was impossible for most female students.

The girls were taught to study in areas nearest to home without considering better institutions which always worked to their disadvantage, he added.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net