Nearly half fail HSC: most failures in English and ICT, more than 100 examiners identified

In Bangladesh's 2026 HSC and equivalent examinations, 52.12 percent of candidates passed — meaning nearly half of those who sat the exams failed this year. A total of 1,240,798 candidates took part under the country's 11 education boards. Of them, 646,685 passed and 594,113 failed.

Analysis of the results shows this year's HSC pass rate is the lowest in 22 years. The GPA-5 rate has also fallen — 40,084 candidates achieved GPA-5 this year. The pass rate was 57.12 percent in 2025; this year it fell further to 52.12 percent.

Subject-wise results show students failed most in English and ICT. It was announced at Saturday's results publication that 243,528 candidates failed in English. Next was ICT, in which 138,493 candidates failed.

At a press conference at the Secretariat on Saturday morning to announce the results, Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Haque Milan said the results were not satisfactory, but proper measures had been taken for transparency in script evaluation. He said: “This year the pass rate and GPA-5 have fallen somewhat. This did not happen because of a shortcoming in any one subject. Rather, the long-standing gaps in the overall learning method, textbooks and education system must be reassessed and removed.”

At the results publication event, Mahdi Amin, the prime minister's education adviser, said scripts in this year's exams were evaluated in a fully impartial way. The artificial culture of inflating GPA-5 and pass rates has been left behind, and merit has been assessed, he said. He also mentioned a strict position on question paper leaks.

Educationists, however, disagree with the government's explanation. They say such a collapse in results happened because there was a crisis in this year's question setting or script evaluation.

Professor Syed Akhtaruzzaman, chairman of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee and the Dhaka Education Board, said: “The current government has moved away from the tendency of keeping students happy with nominal evaluation. We told examiners not to give extra marks. This time they were told — students should get exactly what they deserve.” He also said low student attendance in class throughout the year, or flaws in the learning method, could affect results overall.

Professor Akhtaruzzaman also said the mark sheets of examiners who checked this year's HSC scripts showed some abnormal patterns. He said: “We have already identified more than 100 examiners. We are working on what amount of marks difference would bring a teacher under punishment.” However, he did not clarify who those examiners are or what kind of action would be taken against them.

Explaining the higher failures in English and ICT, Professor Akhtaruzzaman said: “The question paper was conventional. There is anyway a higher tendency to fail in English.” On ICT, he said ICT teachers have not been appointed in all institutions in that way, there is a shortage of teachers in this subject, and teachers of other subjects teach ICT — which is why there is a learning gap. He also noted that candidates could not properly grasp the syllabus.

Professor Mohammad Mojibur Rahman of Dhaka University's Institute of Education and Research said: “There is a shortage of good English teachers in our country. Teachers of other subjects teach English or teach ICT. That is why the results collapse has been greater in these two subjects.” As another reason for more failures in ICT, he pointed to inequality — educational institutions across the country outside Dhaka have no ICT labs, and children from rural or low-income families do not get a device or computer for ICT.

In this year's exams, not a single student passed from 293 institutions in the country. And students of only 139 institutions achieved a 100 percent pass rate.

Board-wise, the Dhaka Education Board is ahead in both pass rate and GPA-5 — its pass rate is 61.80 percent, with 16,714 GPA-5 achievers. Next, the Madrasa Education Board has a pass rate of 61.07 percent and 3,250 GPA-5 achievers. The other boards' pass rates are: Chattogram 52.07 percent, Mymensingh 51.44, Sylhet 50.90, Technical 49.43, Cumilla 48.04, Dinajpur 45.98, Rajshahi 45.06, Jessore 44.92, and Barisal at the bottom with 44.84 percent — where only 950 candidates achieved GPA-5.

This year's HSC and equivalent exams began on 2 July and ended on 8 August. The Chattogram board's exams were postponed due to flooding. Among this year's candidates under the 11 boards, 607,649 were male and 633,149 were female. Professor Akhtaruzzaman said attendance in class at institutions across the country outside the capital Dhaka is much lower — and for those who only fill in the form and sit the exam, the chance of passing also decreases. The education ministry is also looking for the causes behind the results collapse.