Myanmar's matriculation exam results show declining pass rate

YANGON (Xinhua) - Myanmar's high school matriculation results for the academic year of 2013-14 came out with a declined pass rate compared with the previous year, according to state media reports on Sunday.

In Myanmar, basic education students, who pass the matriculation exam, will be basically admitted to the universities.

Out of a total of 541,946 students enlisted for the matriculation examination in March, only 171,647 students or 31.67 percent passed, the examination board was quoted as saying.

However, the highest rate of passing is in southwestern Ayeyawaddy region, while the failure rate is in far-flung corners of the country.

A father of a female student who won distinctions in five subjects in the year's exam in Thanlyin township, Yangon region said with satisfaction that although the parents have faced many struggle in their lives, they have successfully supported their daughter to complete her education.

Meanwhile, a mother of a female student, who failed the exam, made up her mind that she will give her daughter one more chance to try again for next year's exam, holding that although the education cost is relatively high to them, they do not want the daughter to abandon education and to become uneducated as the lives of roadside vendors are very hard.

Myanmar's existing university enrollment system totally depends on the marks of the matriculation exam and students with lower marks will have lesser chance to get enrolled with universities.

Official statistics show that there are 41,000 state-operated basic education schools in the country  where a total of over 8.1 million students are pursuing education under the guidance of over 270,000 teachers.

In the higher education sector, the country has 161 universities and colleges.