Girls outshone boys in the CBSE Class 10 and 12 exams which saw a pass percentage of 94.4 and 92.71 respectively, according to results announced on Friday. The pass percentage in the CBSE Class 12 exam has gone up by over 9 percentage points in comparison to the pre-pandemic academic session of 2018-19 while a similar jump has been seen in the number of candidates scoring above 95 and 90 per cent marks. Similar trends have been witnessed in the class 10 results, announced by the board on Friday. The board officials, however, claimed that this academic session was a "special one" and cannot be compared with previous sessions.
"Covid, non-conduct of classes, holding examinations two times, conducting an objective type examination, giving replies on OMRs, evaluation by schools etc, has made this session a special one and thus it cannot be compared with any of the previous sessions," CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said.
The board has also decided against publishing merit lists to avoid "unhealthy competition" among students. "As per earlier decision of the board, no merit list will be declared to avoid unhealthy competition among students. The board is also not awarding first, second and third division to its students," Sanyam Bhardwaj said.
"The board will issue merit certificates to 0.1 per cent of students who have scored the highest marks in subjects," he added.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in March announced that the undergraduate admissions in all central universities will now be through Common University Entrance Test (CUET) instead of Class 12 scores.
This year, the Class 12 pass percentage stands at 92.71 per cent with 33,432 candidates having scored above 90 per cent and 1,34,797 above 95 per cent. Over 67,000 students have been placed in compartment. For Class 10, the pass percentage this year is 94.4, which is 4.64 per cent lower than last year's 91.46. The difference between the pass percentage of girls and boys was 3.7 last year. While the pass percentage of girls stood at 95.21, that of boys and transgender candidates was 93.8 and 90 respectively.
Over 21.09 lakh regular candidates had registered for the Class 10 exam this year, of whom 20.93 lakh had appeared in it. The number of candidates scoring above 95 per cent has increased by over 7,000, with 64,908 students falling in the bracket.
Similarly, the number of students scoring between 90 and 95 per cent has gone up by over 36,000 from last year's 2,00,962. A total of 2,36,993 candidates have scored between 90 and 95 per cent this year. The board also announced that it will conduct Class 10 and 12 exams for the 2022-23 academic session from February 15 next year. Unlike last year, there will be only one exam at the end of the academic session in 2023.
"In light of the lessening of impact of the Covid pandemic across the globe, the board has decided to conduct the 2023 examination from February 15, 2023," Bhardwaj said. "CBSE has decided to go back to the conventional practice of holding board exams once a year. In 2022, in view of COVID-19, these exams were conducted in two terms," CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj had earlier said.