Rural schools still lag behind urban counterparts in HSC results

The results of Higher Secondary School (HSC) examinations under Chittagong Education Board was published yesterday (Sunday) marked that rural schools still continue to lag behind their urban counterparts in terms of performance.Most of the successful colleges and students hail from urban areas, while most of the poor performed institutes are in rural areas. The academicians and educationists put it down to the shortage of competent teachers, laboratories, libraries and other facilities in rural colleges for the rural students falling behind their urban compatriots.
The rural students are lagging behind and have been failing to catch up with their urban counterparts in results as they get no supervision from competent teachers on how to tackle creative method questions in HSC examinations, they claimed.
This year a total of 80,765 examinees appeared at the examinations from 217schools under 92 examination centres of Chittagong Board. The results of HSC examinations published yesterday (Sunday) showed that no rural colleges except Cox’s Bazar Districts’ colleges (64.80 pc) could secure any good percentage in passing rate. The pass percentage of Chittagong city stands at 76.35 while, the pass percentage in Chittagong district stands at 66.24. The failure percentages in Chittagong district except city, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts stand at 41.27, 35.20, 56.09, 49.84 and 42.01 respectively.
Admitting to the existence of the rural-urban disparity in education, Mohammad Mahbub Hasan, exam controller of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, Chittagong told` The Independent` that this was due to imbalance in infrastructural development.
“The rural-urban gap sharply widened in recent years in terms of students’ performance. It is abundantly clear from this year’s HSC results that education has now become accessible mostly to the rich and those living in the urban areas,” said Mahbub.
“It is really a challenge to reduce the gap since the education sector gets only a meager budgetary allocation from the government in terms of the demand,” added Mahbub.Prof Jesmin Akter, Principal of Chittagong College said told The Independent, “Students from urban well-off families can avail coaching, private tuition, better guidance, food and nutrition that no rural students receive. Most of the upper and upper middle class families in rural areas tend to send their children to urban colleges, another reason for the poor performance of rural institutions.
“However, most of the urban students receive private tuition in addition to better classroom activities. On the contrary, schools in rural areas don't have sufficient teachers and most guardians can't afford private tutors for their children. The students of urban schools achieve glorious results, while rural students from poor families even struggle to obtain even pass marks,” said Jesmin. “The acute dearth of skilled teaching faculty, laboratories, libraries and other needed facilities in rural colleges are to be blamed for the plummeting standard of education in rural areas in Chittagong. Students in urban areas are blessed with better financial support compared to their rural counterparts,” added Jesmin.

Rural schools still lag behind urban counterparts in HSC results

The results of Higher Secondary School (HSC) examinations under Chittagong Education Board was published yesterday (Sunday) marked that rural schools still continue to lag behind their urban counterparts in terms of performance.Most of the successful colleges and students hail from urban areas, while most of the poor performed institutes are in rural areas. The academicians and educationists put it down to the shortage of competent teachers, laboratories, libraries and other facilities in rural colleges for the rural students falling behind their urban compatriots. The rural students are lagging behind and have been failing to catch up with their urban counterparts in results as they get no supervision from competent teachers on how to tackle creative method questions in HSC examinations, they claimed. This year a total of 80,765 examinees appeared at the examinations from 217schools under 92 examination centres of Chittagong Board. The results of HSC examinations published yesterday (Sunday) showed that no rural colleges except Coxs Bazar Districts colleges (64.80 pc) could secure any good percentage in passing rate. The pass percentage of Chittagong city stands at 76.35 while, the pass percentage in Chittagong district stands at 66.24. The failure percentages in Chittagong district except city, Coxs Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts stand at 41.27, 35.20, 56.09, 49.84 and 42.01 respectively. Admitting to the existence of the rural-urban disparity in education, Mohammad Mahbub Hasan, exam controller of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, Chittagong told` The Independent` that this was due to imbalance in infrastructural development. The rural-urban gap sharply widened in recent years in terms of students performance. It is abundantly clear from this years HSC results that education has now become accessible mostly to the rich and those living in the urban areas, said Mahbub. It is really a challenge to reduce the gap since the education sector gets only a meager budgetary allocation from the government in terms of the demand, added Mahbub.Prof Jesmin Akter, Principal of Chittagong College said told The Independent, Students from urban well-off families can avail coaching, private tuition, better guidance, food and nutrition that no rural students receive. Most of the upper and upper middle class families in rural areas tend to send their children to urban colleges, another reason for the poor performance of rural institutions. However, most of the urban students receive private tuition in addition to better classroom activities. On the contrary, schools in rural areas dont have sufficient teachers and most guardians cant afford private tutors for their children. The students of urban schools achieve glorious results, while rural students from poor families even struggle to obtain even pass marks, said Jesmin. The acute dearth of skilled teaching faculty, laboratories, libraries and other needed facilities in rural colleges are to be blamed for the plummeting standard of education in rural areas in Chittagong. Students in urban areas are blessed with better financial support compared to their rural counterparts, added Jesmin.