The Board of Secondary Education Karachi’s (BSEK) matriculation exam results for mathematics have exposed the deteriorating education standards in the city. As per the data released by the BSEK, the majority of the candidates had received 50 percent or lesser marks in Physics and Mathematics.
A breakdown of the statistics revealed that of a total of 157,000 candidates from public and private schools who had taken the Matriculation examinations in 2019, 82 percent had passed the Physics examination. Only 12 percent had scored 80 percent or more marks in it, and 27 percent had obtained either 50 or fewer marks in it.
In the same year, a little above 12 percent of the 158,000 candidates who had taken the Maths examination had scored over 80 percent marks in it. Of the total 83 percent who had passed the examination, 34 percent had scored either 50 or fewer marks in it. Additionally, 10.09 percent had scored between 70 and 80 marks, 11.75 percent had scored between 60 and 70 marks, and 13.17 percent had scored between 50 and 60 marks.
The report mentioned that similar trends had occurred in 2018 and the year before, and the comparison revealed similar lackluster performances by the candidates, especially in Physics and Maths. Prof. Dr. Saeeduddin’s remarks on the analysis report read:
The progress of nations in the world weighs upon their level of education in physics and mathematics. Keeping the importance of these subjects in view, the BSEK held a post-results analysis to ascertain the reason for the decline and to make a strategy in this regard.
He identified registered and unregistered private schools in every nook and cranny of the city as one of the key reasons for the downfall of education. He also noted that most of the private schools in the densely populated areas of the metropolis do not employ separate teachers for Maths, Physics, and Chemistry due to their low budgets.
In such schools, only a single ‘science teacher’ teaches all three subjects without the necessary qualifications to do so.
Students from schools located in Baldia Town, Orangi, Korangi, and Landhi, pass examinations on the basis of rote-learning rather than conceptual learning.
“These schools need to understand that a Maths teacher can teach Physics, but a Physics teacher cannot teach mathematics,” Dr. Saeeduddin added.
