CBSE Class 12 results: 99.35% students pass

MUMBAI: Almost all Central Board of Secondary Exam (CBSE) Class 12 students have passed this year, showed the board results published on Friday. A total of 1.3 million students were set to appear for the Class 12 board exam this year across 16 regions in the country and 99.37% of them have passed.

Pune region, which includes Maharashtra, recorded a pass percentage of 99.35%, up by 9.11 percentage points from last year’s 90.24%.

Experts said this jump could be a result of the alternative assessment policy adopted by CBSE in the view of the pandemic.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continued to rage in many parts of the country, the board exam was cancelled, and students were assessed based on a new formula designed by CBSE.

This year, the board evaluated students by compiling their marks in Class 10, 11 and 12. Of the total score, 30% weightage was assigned to the average of the three best performing subjects out of the five main ones in Class 10.

Another 30% was assigned to theory marks obtained in Class 10 and the remaining 40% was given to scores in midterm/unit tests or pre-board exams during Class 12.

“The alternative assessment policy could be one of the reasons why the numbers are better this year. To moderate the marks, we are considering only the best and highest marks scored by the student in the last three years. Another reason could be that the board has been liberal in its assessment this year given the pandemic has been difficult for students as well,” said Avnita Bir, director-principal of RN Podar School, Santacruz.

At Delhi Public School in Nerul, of the 316 students 83.2% got above 90% marks, said principal J Mohanty, adding all students passed with first division.

Across the country, the number of students securing more than 95% marks has almost doubled with an 80% increase as compared to last year. Students said their scores exceeded their expectations. “I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had secured 97.6%. I have done well in the past three years, but I wasn’t expecting to score this well. I’d like to credit my parents and teachers for this,” said Chinmaya DR, who topped in science stream at Bal Bharti Public School, Navi Mumbai.