The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Meanwhile students have done better this year with a higher pass percentage
The Bhutan Council for Secondary Examinations and Assessment (BCSEA) has asked for the appropriate professional agencies, like the Office of Attorney General, Cabinet Secretariat and the Police, to take appropriate legal or administrative action on the two adults involved in the English II question paper leakage.
As per BCSEA, eight candidates and two adults were found to be involved in the question paper leakage. An official was found to be the source of leakage and the other official was the information dispenser. Under the purview of BCSEA, the two adults involved in the case are eternally barred from participating in any of the BCSEA’s activities.
BCSEA cancelled the Bhutan Higher Secondary Education Certificate (BHSEC) 2014 results of the eight candidates involved in spreading the leakage. They are also barred from taking the BHSEC examination for a time period ranging from one to three years. Seven of the candidates are barred for a year each and one candidate is barred for three years. They are, however, eligible to sit of the exam after the completion of the barred period.
The decision against the individuals involved in the leakage and the penalties were decided within the purview of the examination rules and regulation and through the directives from the Board of Directors and the Cabinet.
On the controversy of the English II question paper leakage, “There were minimal traces or no hard evidences of paper leakage,” said the Secretary of Examinations, Kinga Dakpa.
“The random analysis did not indicate any concrete evidence of leakage, and therefore, concluded that the leak had minimal impact on the performance. The leakage was felt to be largely a rumour,” he added.
BCSEA investigation found that three candidates involved in the leakage had provided standard answers, searched through Google, to poetry questions indicating that the students had prior information on the particular poem set in the paper. “But the answers were not to their advantage as they were wrong,” Kinga Dakpa said.
Upon analysis, BCSEA found that the mean marks of English I and English II were 49.22 and 50.89 respectively. Meanwhile, the pass percentage for English I and English II were 91.21 percent and 94.03 percent respectively.
BCSEA, upon comparative analysis of English I and English II marks, stated that it was difficult to conclude if the leak did not supplement the student performance in English. The marks in English I and English II range from 0-33 points with varying results in different candidates, wherein some candidates have performed better in English I and some have done well in English II.
The highest mark scored in English I was 87 and English II had the best score at 84. By comparing the analysis of performance in the past years in English I and English II, BCSEA stated that maximum candidates have scored 50.22 percent in English I and 40-50 percent in English II. The paper was mentioned as being comparatively easy by the markers and students themselves.
The papers were scrutinized, by the 46 markers, of any traces or evidences of mass leakage, marks of students to indicate any undue gains or loss by students, and the impact of leakage on the overall student performance in English II.
Further, a random analysis of the marks was carried out and the suspicious papers were scrutinized. “We looked at papers, at their marks and looked at comparative statistics, analysis of marks and performance including the performance in past years,” Kinga Dakpa said.
Last year, there were 10,468 registered candidates from 50 higher secondary schools (34 government and 16 private schools) of which 10,252 appeared for the BHSEC 2014 examinations.
The latest overall pass percentage is 89.38 percent, which is an increase of 2.77 percent over 2013 pass percentage of 86.61 percent. BCSEA has declared the BHSEC 2014 examination results as being one of the best since 2006.
In terms of stream-wise pass performance, the pass percentage of the candidates was 94.35 percent in Science, 86.44 percent in Commerce, and 84.72 percent in Arts. BCSEA said there has been an increase in the pass percentage of candidates in every stream as compared to last year.
In the subject-wise performance, the candidates did well in English, Dzongkha, Geography, and Science subjects with pass percentages above 90 percent. The lowest pass percentage was in History with 63.22 percent. The candidates performed well in Geography with 62. 08 mean score.
The mean scores for most of the subjects range from 50 to 58. The mean scores for subjects, like History, Economics, Accounts and Computer Studies range from 41-46.
The science stream was topped by Jambay Kinley of Ugyen Academy Higher Secondary School (HSS) with 91 percent.
Likewise, in commerce stream, Kinga Pelden of Ugyen Academy HSS stood first with 89.50 percent.
In the arts stream, Sonam Tshomo from Motithang HSS topped the stream with 89 percent.
For the Language and Cultural Studies Certificate examination, there were 607 candidates from various schools registered, of which 595 appeared for the exams. 551(87.97) candidates have passed the exams.
Tshewang Gyeltshen of Taktse HSS stood first with 83.57 percent
The candidates are to collect the mark sheets and pass certificates from their respective schools by second week of March. BCSEA allows a maximum of two subjects to be given for clerical paper recheck with a fee of Nu 300 per paper from February 4 to 25 and the recheck results would be announced on March 3.
Meanwhile, the class X results will be out by Tuesday next week.
