Editorial
HSC results are satisfying
There are some worries, though
With 75.08 per cent of students emerging successful at this year's HSC examinations, it appears that education at that level is on course in the country. The number of those who have achieved GPA-5 is higher than previously, which of course convinces many that the standard of education has gone up. Additionally, a remarkable degree of efficiency has come into the preparation, tabulation and announcement of the results. Where earlier it took the authorities ninety days to make the results known, this time that period has been slashed to fifty-seven. We therefore congratulate the authorities. And, of course, our heartiest congratulations go out to the successful candidates. They have earned their laurels.
And yet amidst all this euphoria about the high rate of success, it will not do to forget that almost 25 per cent of those who appeared at the examinations failed to cross the hurdle. There is real cause for concern here. In all this pretty staggering demonstration of success, why such a large number stumbled raises a few questions. GPA-5s apart, the majority of the students have registered simple passes. What does the future hold for them? There is yet another worry, which is that 24 educational institutions did not see a single student of theirs pass the examinations. In a system which guarantees almost no chance of failure, one is quite perturbed that whole colleges can come up with zero performance. As we ponder these questions, there is too the matter of whether such high percentages of success are any indication of an enhancement of quality among students. To what extent the system caters to the intellectual development of students and eggs them into knowledge-related inquiry is something we cannot ignore. There is always a difference between answering objective or quiz-like questions and formulating detailed responses to challenging queries.
Finally, there is the old question of whether the nation's universities are equipped to accommodate all these successful HSC examinees. In the past, how many were able to enter university and how many simply drifted away remains a question. It is not acceptable that those who clear their college examinations find that the path to higher education is blocked for many of them.
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