At a time when failure rates were high in the humanities stream of this year’s SSC exams, Ritu Khatun of Chougachha — who took her exams while her cancer-stricken father’s body lay at home — has proved her mettle by earning a GPA-5. She sat the SSC exam in the humanities group from Hakimpur Secondary School in Chougachha upazila of Jashore. But having lost her father, the family’s only earner, the exceptionally talented girl now faces uncertainty over her higher education. She wants to become a civil administrative officer.
Ritu is the younger of two daughters of the late Kabir Hossain and Rehena Khatun of Hakimpur village in Hakimpur union of the upazila. According to her family and school, her elder sister is already married. Ritu began her 2026 SSC exams with her cancer-stricken father at home. During the exams, when her father Kabir Hossain became seriously ill, he was admitted to Jashore 250-bed General Hospital. On 10 May, Ritu had her History of Bangladesh and World Civilisation paper. Her father died at the hospital in the early hours of that day, and the process of bringing his body home began that morning.
Ritu’s exam centre was Chhara Pilot Girls’ School in Chougachha town, 10 km from her village of Hakimpur. Her family did not tell her that her father had died; his body was taken home only after she had reached the exam centre. After the exam, on returning home, Ritu learned that her father was no more. She saw his face one last time, bid him farewell, and had to sit down to prepare for her next paper. Carrying her grief, Ritu completed her remaining exams. When the results were published on 10 August, it emerged that she had earned a GPA-5.
Reacting to the result, Ritu said her father would have been overjoyed to see it had he been alive. Along with seeking everyone’s prayers for him, she spoke of her fears about her higher education in his absence. The school’s senior assistant teacher Shahana Khatun said Ritu is very talented and that teachers had expected her to do well; neither her father’s illness nor the family’s poverty could stand in the way of her result. Calling on the well-off in society to stand by Ritu, whose day-labourer father is gone, she said arranging a scholarship would make Ritu’s higher education easier. Chougachha Upazila Nirbahi Officer Farzana Islam called it very happy news and said the upazila administration would stand by the indomitable student, extending all possible support for her higher education.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report