More than half of male candidates fail HSC, as boys' pass rate falls to 47.75 percent

More than half of the male candidates who sat this year's HSC and equivalent examinations have failed. The failure rate among boys is 52.25 percent, while for girls it is 43.69 percent. In other words, more than 52 out of every 100 boys could not pass, compared with about 44 out of every 100 girls.

Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon formally published the HSC and equivalent results on Saturday (October 31) at the Education Ministry's meeting room at the Secretariat. The average pass rate across the 11 education boards this year is 52.12 percent.

According to the result statistics, 1,240,798 candidates sat the examination this year. Of them, 607,649 were boys and 633,149 were girls.

Among the boys, 290,157 passed and 317,492 failed. Among the girls, 356,528 passed and 276,621 failed.

The pass rate for boys is 47.75 percent, while the pass rate for girls is 56.31 percent. Girls are ahead in the pass rate by about eight and a half percentage points.

Compared with the results of the past two years, the failure rate has risen rapidly for both boys and girls. In 2024, the boys' pass rate was 75.61 percent — about 24 out of every 100 boys failed then. Last year the boys' pass rate fell to 54.60 percent, and this year it has fallen further, below half.

For girls, the pass rate in 2024 was 79.95 percent. Last year it fell to 62.97 percent. This year it has fallen further to 56.31 percent.

At the same time, the gap between boys and girls has widened. In 2024, girls were ahead of boys in the pass rate by 4.34 percentage points. Last year the gap stood at about eight and a half points. This year, roughly the same gap remains.

However, despite lagging in the pass rate, boys have obtained more GPA-5 grades this year. A total of 40,084 candidates achieved GPA-5, of whom 20,363 are boys and 19,721 are girls — 642 more boys than girls achieved GPA-5.

In the past few years, girls had been ahead in GPA-5 achievement. Last year, 69,097 candidates achieved GPA-5, including 37,044 girls and 32,053 boys. In 2024, about 16,000 more girls than boys achieved GPA-5.

In this year's SSC examination, too, girls were ahead in the pass rate. In those results, published last August, the girls' pass rate was 66.68 percent and the boys' was 57.86 percent. But in the SSC, girls were also ahead in GPA-5 achievement — making this year's HSC picture an exception there.