Bangladesh’s 2024 Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) results have sparked nationwide alarm, laying bare the deep cracks in the country’s education system. With an average pass rate of just 58.83 per cent across 11 education boards, this is the worst performance in two decades, hearkening back to 2004 when 47.74 per cent of students passed.
Education analysts, policymakers, and teachers are now wrestling with the same question: Is this collapse a painful but necessary return to academic reality or a symptom of deeper decay in the education system itself?
The numbers tell a story of decline
The data released on Thursday, October 16, paints a grim picture. This year, 41.17 per cent of students failed, while the number of GPA-5 achievers—once a badge of national pride—fell to 69,097, a drop of over 76,000 from last year.
Even more worrying, 202 educational institutions recorded a 0% pass rate—triple the number from 2023. Meanwhile, the count of institutions with a perfect 100% pass rate has shrunk to 1,043.
The scale of this decline, experts say, is not just a statistical outlier. It reflects the long-term erosion of learning quality, especially in the post-pandemic years.
A slide back to 2004: How we got here
To understand the 2024 result disaster, one must revisit the history of the HSC grading system.
Until 2002, HSC exams were assessed using the “division” system—first, second, and third divisions. In 2003, the GPA system was introduced to align Bangladesh’s education framework with international standards. That first year, only 38.43% passed. By 2004, the rate rose to 47.74%, and from 2005 onward, pass rates steadily climbed, reaching as high as 78.67% in 2012.
Then came the pandemic. In 2020, exams were cancelled altogether, and all students received an autopass. The following two years saw shortened syllabuses, reduced subjects, and lenient grading. As a result, the pass rate hit 95.26% in 2021 and 85.95% in 2022, before settling at 78.64% in 2023.
When the 2024 exams returned to full syllabus, full marks, and full duration, the system collided head-on with its own neglected foundation.
Political upheaval and interrupted exams
This year’s exams were already mired in chaos. The HSC examinations began under political tension—just as the quota reform movement erupted nationwide. Protests disrupted schedules, the government fell, and the interim administration inherited a crisis.
Due to unrest and administrative instability, several exams were postponed, and later cancelled altogether. Authorities eventually opted to publish results based on subject mapping—using students’ previous SSC grades to estimate scores for missed subjects.
That decision, according to many experts, compounded confusion and eroded student morale.
“Results down as normal trend returns”
Education board officials, however, argue that the lower pass rate is not necessarily a tragedy—it’s a correction.
Professor Dr. Khandokar Ehsanul Kabir, President of the Bangladesh Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and Chairman of the Dhaka Board, defended the outcome:
“We have returned to the normal examination pattern—full syllabus, full marks, and full time. Perhaps the students could not adapt to this sudden shift.”
He added, “The standard of education has fallen in recent years. The exaggerated results of the past created a false sense of progress. This decline, while painful, may bring credibility back to our evaluation system.”
To the boards, the numbers are not a failure—they are a reality check after years of artificially inflated grades.
“Students are not guinea pigs”
But critics see it differently.
Former caretaker government adviser Rasheda K. Chowdhury, who leads the Campaign for Popular Education, cautioned that restoring exams without restoring classroom learning was a recipe for disaster.
“You can’t just bring back the full syllabus and full-length exams without ensuring the teaching process has recovered as well,” she said. “Students have been taught under a compromised system for years—they were unprepared for this sudden leap.”
Her view was echoed by Professor Dr. Siddiqur Rahman, former director of Dhaka University’s Institute of Education and Research:
“There’s no way to hide behind technicalities. So many students failed—where will they go now? Are we experimenting on them? Making students guinea pigs cannot be an example of a responsible education system.”
The deeper issue: Learning loss and institutional neglect
Education experts point to a series of underlying causes:
Pandemic-era learning loss that was never properly recovered.
Lack of teacher training and classroom engagement, especially in rural areas.
Over-reliance on coaching centres and rote memorization.
Policy inconsistency, as governments repeatedly shifted exam formats and evaluation criteria.
In short, Bangladesh’s education system never truly stabilised after COVID-19. The 2024 results, they argue, are not a sudden failure—they are a symptom of years of neglect and superficial policymaking.
Lessons for the future
The 2024 HSC results expose a stark reality: Bangladesh’s education reforms have been largely exam-oriented, not learning-oriented. Policymakers prioritised grades over growth, results over reasoning.
If the country truly wants to recover from this educational shock, experts say it must:
Rebuild classroom learning capacity through teacher retraining and curriculum reform.
Ensure stability in education policy regardless of political change.
Introduce academic counselling for failed students to prevent long-term dropouts.
Strengthen accountability in both public and private educational institutions.
The bottom line
The lowest HSC results in 20 years are more than a statistical anomaly—they are a mirror held up to an education system that has lost direction.
For too long, Bangladesh chased higher pass rates as proof of progress. This year’s numbers stripped away that illusion. Now, policymakers face a defining choice:
Will this be remembered as the year Bangladesh restored honesty to its exams—or as the year it lost faith in its classrooms?