Not one student passes Alim at Bagmara madrasa in Cumilla's Debidwar — it had no Alim teacher at all

Not a single student from Bagmara Islamia Alim Madrasa in Borkamta Union of Cumilla's Debidwar upazila has passed the 2026 Alim examinations, the HSC-equivalent test. After the results were published on Saturday, it emerged that the madrasa had no teacher appointed for its Alim section at all; teachers of the Dakhil level had been teaching the Alim students all along.

Principal Maulana Abdur Razzak said on Sunday evening that 21 students had filled in forms but 16 actually sat the exam — three male and 13 female students. The result has angered local parents and guardians.

Abdur Razzak said: 'Our Dakhil section is MPO-listed, but the Alim section is non-MPO, so there is no separate teacher for the Alim section. We have been running the Alim section with Dakhil teachers. We had hoped at least eight to ten students would pass; we did not think the result would be like this.'

He added that the madrasa runs its Dakhil section with 14 teachers and four staff members and is short of 10 teachers even there. The Alim section had been kept going somehow in the hope of eventually securing MPO enrolment.

The principal said many of the examinees were already married and had to be called in repeatedly and coached just to sit the exam. The madrasa authorities will challenge the result, he said.

The madrasa's president, Advocate Abu Musa Bhuiyan, declined to comment on the result when contacted.

Upazila Secondary Education Officer Dewan Mohammad Jahangir said many good madrasa students leave for colleges after passing Dakhil, so the meritorious students do not stay for higher study there. His office will sit over the Bagmara result and work on how to achieve better results in future, he said.

Under the Cumilla Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, the overall pass rate in the 2026 HSC examinations was 48.04 percent. Of 92,162 candidates, 44,272 passed and 1,313 achieved GPA-5.