Poor performance in secondary school certificate  (SSC) and equivalent examinations in Bangladesh:  trends and issues

Md. Ahsan Habib; Mst. Jannatul Mawa

Md. Ahsan Habib*	md.habib@du.ac.bd	IER, University of Dhaka Bangladesh
Mst. Jannatul Mawa	jannatmawa23@gmail.com	IML, University of Dhaka Bangladesh

Summary:

Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in primary education whereas secondary education is still far from its expected targets. Along with the low level of participation, noticeable incompletion rates, high drop-out and poor performance have remained constant over the years. Among students who manage to complete their secondary school years, a significant portion is unable to pass the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or equivalent examinations every year. This study, which is a part of a larger-scale study, aims to explore the trends and issues of poor performance in SSC/equivalent examinations. A quantitative approach was employed to explore the research objectives. A total of 3072 students from secondary educational institutes of 8 divisions participated in completing the survey questionnaire. The findings of the study show persistent trends of unsuccessful and poor performance in the examination and the number of students who failed in the SSC/Equivalent examination is considerably large. The study found major issues including family financial and attitudinal support, schools’ infrastructural facilities, impacts of classroom teaching-learning styles, values of education, and sense of safety which related to achieving expected outcomes of secondary education. Similar issues were found among the students with ethnicity regarding their poor performance in the examination. The study suggests that along with the financial and policy support, awareness, and attitudinal change through media, the empowerment of the local community in cooperation with non-governmental organizations may remarkably contribute to enhance students’ desired academic performance.

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Keywords:

achievement

failure

Trends

secondary education.

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Journal:

Volume. 18 - issue 3 / 2022

VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

Poor performance in secondary school certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations in Bangladesh: trends and issues