Dhaka, Oct. 31 -- Girls have pulled ahead of boys in the pass rate in this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations, but have slipped behind in top grades.

An analysis of the results announced on Saturday shows 633,149 of the 1,240,798 examinees were girls, and 356,528 of them passed, a rate of 56.31 percent.

Of the 607,649 boys, only 290,157 cleared the hurdle, or 47.75 percent.

In GPA-5, 20,363 boys secured the top grade against 19,721 girls.

Last year, 1,235,661 students sat the exams, 624,215 of them girls. Of those, 393,096 passed, a rate of 62.97 percent.

Among boys, 333,864 passed, or 54.60 percent.

Of the 69,097 candidates who earned GPA-5 last year, 37,044 were girls and 32,053 boys, meaning 4,9...