Girls shine as pass rate hits 19-year low

Girls have once again outperformed boys in both pass rates and GPA-5 results in this year’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations, even as widespread failures in English and Mathematics dragged the overall results to their lowest level in 19 years.

The overall pass rate across the country’s 11 education boards stood at 62.25 per cent, down 6.20 percentage points from 68.45 per cent last year.

A total of 1,829,485 students appeared in the examinations this year, with 1,138,877 passing and 690,608 failing. The number of unsuccessful candidates rose by nearly 90,000 from 600,660 last year.

Girls maintained a clear lead over boys. Of the 911,791 female candidates, 607,939 passed, giving a pass rate of 66.68 per cent. Among 917,694 male candidates, 530,938 passed, resulting in a pass rate of 57.86 per cent.

The 8.82-percentage-point gap shows that girls continue to hold a significant advantage at the secondary level. They have remained ahead of boys in the pass rate for the past eight years.

Girls also dominated the GPA-5 list, with 63,896 securing the highest grade against 52,780 boys - a difference of 11,116.

The advantage was also evident last year, when 71.03 per cent of female students passed compared with 65.88 per cent of male students. Girls also led the GPA-5 list in 2025, with 73,616 achieving GPA-5 against 65,416 boys.

English, Maths drag down results
While girls maintained their lead, the sharp deterioration in overall performance was largely reflected in English and Mathematics, according to the analysis of the results.

The Mymensingh Board recorded the weakest performance among the general education boards in both subjects. Only 66.64 per cent of students passed English and 69.61 per cent passed Mathematics, meaning roughly one in three students failed English and three in 10 failed Mathematics.

English pass rates were also below 70 per cent in Barishal and Sylhet, at 69.24 per cent and 69.11 per cent respectively.

Among the other boards, the English pass rate was 71.84 per cent in Jashore, 72.27 per cent in Chattogram, 74.70 per cent in Rajshahi, 78.40 per cent in Dhaka, 81.29 per cent in Cumilla and 72.91 per cent in Dinajpur.

The Technical Education Board performed particularly  well in English, recording a pass rate of 94.79 per cent, while the Madrasah Board recorded 79.21 per cent. Mathematics results were similarly weak in several boards. The pass rate was 69.61 per cent in Mymensingh, 69.97 per cent in the Madrasah Board, 70.92 per cent in the Technical Education Board and 71.05 per cent in Dinajpur.

It stood at 75.96 per cent in Sylhet, 77.17 per cent in Rajshahi and 77.98 per cent in Barishal. Among the other major boards, 82.85 per cent passed Mathematics in Dhaka, 81.75 per cent in Cumilla, 83.34 per cent in Jashore and 80.05 per cent in Chattogram.

Meanwhile, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) emerged as the subject with the highest number of successful candidates across the education boards.

The nine general education boards recorded an average pass rate of 64.05 per cent, down from 68.04 per cent last year.

The decline was also reflected in the number of GPA-5 achievers. Only 116,676 students secured GPA-5 this year, compared with 139,032 in 2025 - a decrease of 22,356.

GPA-5 achievers accounted for 10.24 per cent of the total successful candidates this year.

Despite the significant decline in the overall pass rate, Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Hoque Milon described the SSC and equivalent examination results as “good”. Explaining the government’s position, he said students had been awarded marks based on their actual performance in the examinations.

“You can sing with an open heart, but you cannot give marks with an open heart,” Milon said.