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News analysis

'Inflated' results; some questions

Shakhawat Liton
Reflecting the government point of view, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid made an outburst against the Dhaka University authorities for the disastrous results in the DU admission tests by terming the long-practised admissionsystem “faulty" and "unacceptable".
The truth is the heart-breaking results in the DU exams have shaken the core of the government claim that it has done something revolutionary in the education sector.
The Awami League-led government has been portraying the "outstanding results" in the SSC and HSC examinations
as a big success.
Every year, a huge number of students obtain GPA-5 in the two public exams. And every year, eminent academics have described it as "grade inflation" and warned of the falling quality of education.
But the government has paid no heed to the criticism. It has rather kept up its efforts to further enhance the results by allegedly instructing teachers to be liberal in giving marks.
And the results of such artificial grade inflation? Some 80 percent of the 3,00,000 students who took the admission tests in three units failed to obtain pass marks, let alone qualify for admission.
Shocking still is the students' English skills. Only two of the 1,364 applicants of "Kha” (B) unit have qualified for studying English in the DU this year. One had to score 35 out of 60 to qualify.
The English department will take 150 students for the new session. Of them, 125 are to come from among those who took the “Kha" unit test under the arts faculty. The rest would come from among those who sat for the "Gha" (D) unit exam on Friday.
But the university authorities have got only two students. How to find the 123 more students remains a major question.
The catastrophe did not happen overnight. Each of the four previous academic sessions also saw more than 50 percent students failing to secure pass marks (48 out of 120; but students have to obtain the required marks in English and Bangla as well) in the DU admission test. Most of them flunked in Bangla and English.
The education minister should have reacted long before and taken proactive measures to improve the
quality of education. But neither his government nor his ministry paid any attention.
This time, he could not remain silent as the DU entrance test has shaken the base of his government's success in the education sector.
But the way he has made the outburst is ridiculous. To defend the government, he accused the DU authorities of ruining the future of the students by intentionally setting harder questions for the test.
The allegation itself is very serious in nature. Is the DU, the highest echelon of academics in the country, conspiring to destroy the education system? Does the education minister have any proof? Will anybody believe that the DU authorities engage in such a conspiracy? Or did the minister make the sweeping statement like our politicians always do whenever they face criticism for their failure to deliver?
His threat to amend the DU Order-1973 through which the university was given the autonomy to run its affairs is tantamount to a threat to the university's sovereignty.
He said the university authorities should correct the faulty system, otherwise the government would move to amend the law.
Section 46 (1) of the Order empowers the university academic council to determine the procedure for the entrance test. Does the government want to curtail this power by amending the law?
Any threat and trading blame will not yield positive results. The disaster in the admission test results may also be seen as an opportunity to reform the education sector by removing all the weaknesses, including the ones in the DU admission test system, if any. The government should act proactively.