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GPA SYSTEM

Written by Moinul Hossain

Drawbacks of GPA system of SSC & HSC exam

GPA-5, the only target for a student appearing in a public examination. A GPA-5 can make him/her and the family proud. Each year almost eighty thousand students in SSC and thirty thousand in HSC get A+. But the question arises; does this result discover the actual merit?
To answer the question lets talk about the GPA system. Our GPA system have seven categories, A+(80-100), A(70-79), A-(60-69), B(50-59), C(40-49), D(33-39)

and F(0-32). You see there are some huge gapes between the number ranges. So a student get 100 marks get similar grade to the student of 80 marks. Are they similar? Must be no. but in this system they remain the same. If you want to consult the outcome then, it would get a horrible result. Most of the people in Bangladesh are unrealistic in their expectation and they don’t have clear idea about the GPA and the education system. Whenever they know that, their son or daughter get A+, they expect he or she will get the chance in a good university. But, only 17 thousand public university seats become available each and every year. But there remain 13 thousand more GPA-5 holder. So, chances are not available even for the A+ holders. But for their unrealistic and huge expectations most of the students and their family get frustrated.

UGC (University Grants Commission) made similar grading system for all of the universities. Actually this grading system is recognized all over the world. It takes five differences among the grades. Now, let’s check the grading system for SSC and HSC getting the idea from the grading system of UGC.
Number     Grade        Grade Point
100       A+            5.0
95-99        A          4.75
90-94        A-       4.5
85-89        B+            4.25
80-84        B    4.0
75-79        B-       3.75
70-74        C+          3.50
65-69        C              3.25
60-64        C-       3.0
55-59        D+          2.75
50-54        D       2.5
45-49        D-            2.25
40-44        E+       2.0
33-39        E          1.0
0-32          F            0
This is just an imaginary grading system. But what would be the outcome? There are 15 categories with five differences among these. This is much better then the 10 difference. That would distinguish the student of 80 and 100. You see, most of the students in the present time may get the GPA 4-4.5, but whatever they get these would reflect the actual situation.
Another thing should be taking into account. A nation needs different persons in different places. If you can distribute them in the right place, he/she could serve the country in the best way. If 50 students in HSC get A+ or A in physics, then you can assure that, they have extraordinary knowledge in this subject. We may get an Einstein from these talents. If anyone has this result in Biology, he or she could become a good doctor. Is it not a good way to search the merit? Bangladesh Government dismissed the admission test system for the college. Rather the colleges have to choose the students by their age. It is nothing but a unrealistic and bogus system. Government also wants to apply this for the university admission. But age can never be the unit of merit. If you get a good GPA structure, like the imaginary one stated above, you can assured that, you choose the right person.
Each and every year families have to spend lots of money for the university admission coaching centre. The coaching centers attract students by their attractive advertisements and rewards. For the 800 seats in BUET, about 8000 students are admitted in every engineering coaching centre. By this they made a huge profit and the parents lost their wages. But if there exist a good GPA structure, the universities don’t need any admission tests. Rather the corruption and politics behind the admission tests would be eliminated. We have huge amount of talents. But the conventional and weak system is the main obstacle in the talent search. The request to the governing bodies, please make a good acceptable structure for the GPA system, so that, the talents get chance to show their talents.