�Grade inflation� casts doubt on edn quality

When 53 per cent of the students who passed SSC and HSC exams with flying colours fail the entrance tests of public universities, the quality of education at schools can be questioned, said Dr Sulatan Hafeez Rahman, executive director of Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University, at a report-launching ceremony yesterday. The report titled ‘State of Governance Bangladesh 2014-15’ says that 75,964 students who scored GPA-5 (both in SSC and HSC) took the Dhaka University admission tests for the 2014-15 session, of whom 50,478 failed. BIGD launched the report at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital yesterday. In recent years, the statistics of higher education grades show that the pass rate and the rate of students getting GPA-5 have increased immensely. While there were only 20 students with GPA-5 in 2003, the number went up a staggering 2,376 times in 10 years with 47,530 GPA-5s in 2013.
“This tremendous increase in the top grades immediately casts doubt on the quality of education,” said Dr Rahman, who also led the other associates in the research. Until 2003, students had to score 80 to 100 (Grade A+) in eight subjects each to receive an overall “A+” or GPA-5. Since 2004, students who are unable to secure A+ in up to three subjects are still able to get GPA-5. With this change, students who scored 80 to 100 in each of the three subjects are now equal to the students who scored 80 to 100 in five to seven subjects. This change not only increased the number of GPA-5s, but now it is also difficult to differentiate between two students with GPA-5 only with raw scores—for example, one with 100 and another
with 80 in a given subject, the researchers pointed out.
The report focuses on various aspects that bar progress in quality education. These include corruption in the education sector, which takes various forms like fake documents, bribery for admissions and access to education, question paper leak, grade irregularity and inflation, mismatch in education quality, illicit payments for teacher recruitment and nepotism during teacher appointment.
The researchers recommended urgent reform of the existing educational system. The government needs to strengthen education governance with better resources and policy inputs, process, standardisation, quality teaching techniques, monitoring and modernisation of the sector.
This BIGD report is the 8th of its kind and the first attempt to build outcome indicators of governance in three broad areas—political, social and economic. The research is based on secondary data from the government and many different sources.

�Grade inflation� casts doubt on edn quality

When 53 per cent of the students who passed SSC and HSC exams with flying colours fail the entrance tests of public universities, the quality of education at schools can be questioned, said Dr Sulatan Hafeez Rahman, executive director of Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University, at a report-launching ceremony yesterday. The report titled State of Governance Bangladesh 2014-15 says that 75,964 students who scored GPA-5 (both in SSC and HSC) took the Dhaka University admission tests for the 2014-15 session, of whom 50,478 failed. BIGD launched the report at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital yesterday. In recent years, the statistics of higher education grades show that the pass rate and the rate of students getting GPA-5 have increased immensely. While there were only 20 students with GPA-5 in 2003, the number went up a staggering 2,376 times in 10 years with 47,530 GPA-5s in 2013. This tremendous increase in the top grades immediately casts doubt on the quality of education, said Dr Rahman, who also led the other associates in the research. Until 2003, students had to score 80 to 100 (Grade A+) in eight subjects each to receive an overall A+ or GPA-5. Since 2004, students who are unable to secure A+ in up to three subjects are still able to get GPA-5. With this change, students who scored 80 to 100 in each of the three subjects are now equal to the students who scored 80 to 100 in five to seven subjects. This change not only increased the number of GPA-5s, but now it is also difficult to differentiate between two students with GPA-5 only with raw scoresfor example, one with 100 and another with 80 in a given subject, the researchers pointed out. The report focuses on various aspects that bar progress in quality education. These include corruption in the education sector, which takes various forms like fake documents, bribery for admissions and access to education, question paper leak, grade irregularity and inflation, mismatch in education quality, illicit payments for teacher recruitment and nepotism during teacher appointment. The researchers recommended urgent reform of the existing educational system. The government needs to strengthen education governance with better resources and policy inputs, process, standardisation, quality teaching techniques, monitoring and modernisation of the sector. This BIGD report is the 8th of its kind and the first attempt to build outcome indicators of governance in three broad areaspolitical, social and economic. The research is based on secondary data from the government and many different sources.