IN STUDENT-FRIENDLY CLASS 12 RESULTS, 89% MAKE IT THROUGH
The overall pass percentage increased by 5.38 points
NEWDELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday declared results of Class 12 examinations in a format aimed at reaching out to students hit by disruptions in test schedules and classes amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, with an overall pass percentage increase of 5.38 percentage points over last year.
The board decided against releasing a merit list this year due to a change in the Covid-19-hit evaluation criteria, while also replacing the term “fail” with “essential repeat”.
NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday declared results of Class 12 examinations in a format aimed at reaching out to students hit by disruptions in test schedules and classes amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, with an overall pass percentage increase of 5.38 percentage points over last year.
The board decided against releasing a merit list this year due to a change in the Covid-19-hit evaluation criteria, while also replacing the term “fail” with “essential repeat”. Education experts said the moves were aimed at a student-friendly format of the results amid extraordinary circumstances due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A nationwide lockdown necessitated by the outbreak, which began stalking the country in March, led to the cancellation of Class 12 examinations in 12 subjects, with classes at schools also being cancelled to prevent infections. Around 11 exams were cancelled in north-east Delhi, which was also hit by communal riots in February before the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen began spreading in the Capital. The students were evaluated on the basis of the average of marks in exams they took before the lockdown came into effect on March 25.
Delhi’s government schools performed better than private schools for the fifth consecutive year. The overall pass percentage of Delhi government schools stood at 98%, highest ever and around 6 percentage points higher than that of private schools. “Feeling v proud to announce that the CBSE class 12 result of Delhi govt schools this year is 98% - highest ever so far. It’s historic. Congratulations to my Team Education, all students, teachers, parents and education officers. Proud of you all,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
In all, 1,192,961 students from 13,109 schools across the country appeared for the CBSE Class 12 examination this year – 1,059,080 of them cleared the examination. The overall pass percentage was recorded at 88.78%, compared to last year’s 83.40%.
Keeping with a trend that has persisted over several years, girls performed better than boys in the examination. While the overall pass percentage of girls stood at 92.15%, around 86.19% of boys passed the exam. The pass percentage of transgender students was recorded at 66.67%, down from last year’s 83.33%.
Divyanshi Jain, a student of Lucknow’s Navyug Radiance Senior Secondary School, secured the perfect score of 600. “This is unbelievable. I am elated and surprised at the same time,” Jain said.
CBSE’s controller of examination Sanyam Bhardwaj said: “The major reason behind the increase in pass percentage this year is the changes CBSE made in the examination pattern. For the first time, CBSE included 25% objectivetype questions in all the subjects. We also gave 33% internal choice in the exams.”
“The results were declared on the basis of the average of exams in which students appeared. The numbers of exams also vary from student to student. Keeping this unprecedented situation in mind, the board decided not to release any merit list this year,” Bhardwaj added.
The board also decided to replace the term “fail” with “essential repeat” in the results this year. Several principals said the evaluation scheme adopted by CBSE amid the pandemic was student-friendly. Amita Wattal, principal of Springdales Pusa Road, said: “The board has given out very student-friendly results even without conducting exams of some subjects.”
According to a statement released by the board, the term “Fail” will also be removed from the documents. “The idea behind using the term essential repeat was to not to make students feel bad about their performance if they fail in any subject,” a senior official said.
The numbers of students who scored above 90% and 95% marks also increased significantly this year. A total of 38,686 students scored 95% marks and above in aggregate, up 118.6% from 17,693 in 2019. As many as 157,934 students scored 90% and above, 67.48% higher than last year’s tally of 94,299.
According to officials at the Delhi University, this increase will have a direct impact on cutoff scores, since more than 70% applications for admissions received by the university are from CBSE students. “As per the preliminary trends, we are getting about the CBSE results, we won’t be able to keep the percentage low,” said Anju Shrivastava, principal of Hindu College.
Among regions, Thiruvananthapuram recorded the highest pass percentage at 97.67%, followed by Bengaluru at 97.05% and Chennai at 96.17%. The overall pass percentage of the Delhi region stood at 94.39%.
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya outperformed others at 98.70%, followed by Kendriya Vidyalaya (98.6%) and the Central Tibetan School Administration (98.23%).
“Some students have called us saying that they would have scored better on their pending papers if the exams had been conducted and the moderation marking scheme has affected their average score,” said Tania Joshi, principal of Indian School.
The board has decided to conduct optional examinations for students who are not satisfied with their results and want to improve them. “Candidates whose results have been declared on the basis of the assessment scheme will be allowed to appear in these optional examinations to improve their performance if they wish so,” the board said.
The declaration of results on Monday came as a surprise for most as the board did not announce the date in advance. Ishita Singh, a humanities student at DPS Vasant Kunj, said: “It was a surprise. We did not expect the result to be announced so randomly. Also, the website was not working properly.”
Shortly after the results were declared, Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ tweeted: “We congratulate you all for making this possible. I reiterate, Student’s health & quality education are our priority.”