National University Vice-Chancellor Professor ASM Amanullah has said the decline in this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) pass rate should not be viewed as a disaster, expressing optimism that results will improve with greater effort.
His comments came on 31 October following the publication of the 2026 HSC and equivalent examination results. The average pass rate stood at 52.12 per cent this year, down from 58.83 per cent last year, said a press release on Sunday.
“I do not consider the HSC results a disaster. I would describe them as normal results,” Professor Amanullah said. “Perhaps we have failed institutionally to provide students with the teaching, guidance and preparation necessary for an important examination like the HSC. I do not want to blame the students for this. We need to analyse our own shortcomings.”
He noted that pass rates in National University’s Degree Pass Course and Preliminary to Master’s examinations had fallen below 50 per cent, while the honours pass rate was below 60 per cent. He said the university is introducing changes to its assessment system, requiring both students and teachers to be more responsible in exam preparation and answer-script evaluation.
A total of 422,905 students failed in one or two subjects this year. Instead of making them wait a full year, the Ministry of Education will offer them the opportunity to retake exams in those subjects, to be held within a month of the results’ publication.
