Thousands to miss admission to colleges of first choice

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Thousands of students who did well in this year’s SSC examinations would be denied admission to colleges of their choice as seats in good institutes are disproportionately small for the number of students with GPA 4 or above.

This year a whopping 52,500 students got GPA 5 and over 1.9 lakh students scored in between GPA 4 and 5 while the country’s renowned colleges can take in fewer than 30,000 intakes.

Academics and teachers have suggested introducing double shifts at renowned colleges as a quick fix.

“Good students usually try to gain admission to only 10 to 12 renowned colleges in the capital. It is very difficult for us to single out the best students as a government directive does not allow us to hold any admission tests even though the number of GPA 5 holders has increased excessively,” said Father Benjamin De Costa, principal of Notre Dame College.

The education ministry has also decided to keep 10 per cent seats in the capital’s government and non-government colleges reserved for rural students, ministry sources said.

Students in the science group will take the brunt of the problem as 1.76 lakh students will have to compete for 98,000 seats in colleges across the country, which means some 78 thousands students of the group would be forced to switch to commerce or humanities groups.

This year around 52,500 students in the science group scored GPA 5 while around 10,000 got ‘Golden GPA’, a term many teachers, guardians and students use to distinguish the students who have got grade point 5 in all subjects including the elective ones.

Among the GPA 5 achievers, only students with ‘Golden GPA’ would get admission to renowned colleges, said several college teachers.

Prof Basirul Huq, principal of Dhaka College, proposed double shifts at big colleges so students could get themselves admitted into colleges of their choice.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information & Statistics (BANBEIS), college-affiliated schools are increasing by ten percent annually while intermediate colleges by a paltry one percent.

But then, the number of GPA 5 scorers has shot up by 37.81 per cent and GPA 4 or above achievers increased by 19.04 percent on last year. Besides, this year the pass percentage is 72.18, a 16 percent rise from last year.

The good news is ironically disheartening for high-achievers as the 130 college-affiliated schools, 20 intermediate colleges, 50 degree colleges with room for intermediate education and 40 Alia madrasas established in the last couple of years have failed to stand out, BANBEIS sources said.

Against the backdrop of some 7.2 lakh students having passed the SSC exams this year, “we have 4.5 lakh seats in general colleges, 70 thousand in Alia madrasas and 65 thousand in technical colleges. We have only 638 college-affiliated schools, 1175 intermediate colleges, including 10 government ones, 1187 degree colleges with intermediate education and only 1039 Alia madrasas,” BANBEIS Director Ahsan Abdullah told The Daily Star.

He said some of the students would never make it to college while many female students would have to stop their education after getting married.

“Many students with GPA 5 will have to enrol at colleges of their second choice. However, most of the colleges in rural areas will get sufficient students,” the BANBEIS director added.

Only 30,000 of the students who fared well in this year’s examinations will be able to gain admission to around 80 reputed colleges across the country.

Among the capital’s reputed colleges, Dhaka College can take in about 1,100 freshmen, Notre Dame College 2,139, Dhaka Commerce College 902, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College 990, Dhaka City College 1,083, Government Badrunnesa College 819, Government Bangla College 972, Ideal College 1,050, BAF Shaheen College 606, Holy Cross College 488, Lalmatia Women’s College 750, Rajuk Model College 444 and Residential Model College 300.

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