At 82.61%, Delhi govt schools close in on pvt peers’ results

NEW DELHI: The performance of government schools in Delhi improved by around 11 percentage points, from 71.6% in 2019 to 82.61% this year, in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams results announced on Wednesday. In contrast, the overall pass percentage of private schools dropped to 90.19% from 93.18% in 2019. The overall pass percentage of Delhi region also increased to 85.86% this year from last year’s 80.97%.

But despite the improvement, government schools could not get past private schools in overall results unlike in the CBSE Class 12 exams, where government schools fared better. The pass percentage of Delhi government schools has risen to 82.61% this year— highest since CBSE reintroduced the compulsory board exams in Class 10 in 2018. The government schools had recorded a pass percentage of 68.9% in 2017-18 and 71.6% in 2018-19.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia congratulated the students. “Our children have made us proud again! After record breaking results of Class 12, the upward graph of Delhi Education continues in Class 10. Overjoyed that this year, the result improved to 82.61% from 71.58% last year Congratulations to #Teameducation. You have really raised the bar!” he tweeted.

In gender-wise performance in government schools, 78.64% boys passed as compared to 86.76% girls. The gap is marginally less in private schools where 86.20% boys passed this year as compared to 92.49% girls.

According to the data provided by the Delhi government, out of 1,005 schools from which students took the class 10 exams, 147 achieved 100% results. The number of 100% achiever schools was 60 last year. Similarly, the number of schools achieving 90% and above increased to 474 this year from 226 in 2019.

Around 786 government school students scored 90% and above in aggregate. Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas (RPVV)-THE model schools of the Delhi government — recorded a pass percentage of 99.33%.

Government school principals said they had focussed on improving class 10 results since the beginning of the academic session.

Mohammad Shariq, principal of a School of Excellence (SOE) in Kalkaji, said, “The school had extended extra help to students. We held special counselling sessions for parents of students who were slow learners and helped their children study at home,” he said. The school recorded 100% results with the highest percentage being 95.6%.

The principals said though they were yet to catch up with private schools in Class 10, they were happy with the improvement.

AK Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed school in Rohini, said, “The Delhi government had hired resource teachers and experts for board students this year. It helped a lot in preparing students for the exams,” he said.

Private schools principals cited reasons such as change in exam and the evaluation pattern as a possible reason behind the drop in their pass percentage.

Manju Sethi, principal of Bluebells School International in Kailash Colony, said, “Students might have lost marks in objective-type questions. Also, we are disappointed with fewer students getting full marks in scoring subjects like Mathematics,” she said.