Girls outperform boys in CBSE XII results

Students of Tamil Nadu have sailed through the Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examination easily, with the State recording a pass percentage of 97.11 – the highest among the four southern States. In the Chennai region, which comprise Southern and Western States, Goa topped with a pass percentage of 98.23 per cent.

The results of the All India Senior School Certificate Examination of the CBSE held in March 2010 were declared for the Ajmer, Chennai and Panchkula regions on Wednesday. About 6,065 students from 98 schools in Tamil Nadu took the examination. The pass percentage last year was 95.02.

As in previous years, girls have outperformed boys, though the difference was a marginal 0.69 percentage point.

Some school principals said that it was difficult to access the website of CBSE as a result of the heavy traffic and power failures, which made the process of getting the school results cumbersome.

As CBSE does not award individual ranks, many curious parents and teachers were eager to know how other children and schools fared.

Mridhulaa Natarajmurthy of PSBB, Nungambakkam, who scored 486 marks in the Commerce group, has set her eyes on becoming a chartered accountant. “I got a lot of help from my father,” said Mridulaa, who plans to do B.Com by correspondence.

In Science, Swathi Prushti and R. Gayathri of DAV Girls Senior Secondary School, Gopalapuram scored 490/500.

“I scored 99 in Maths, Physics and Chemistry,” said Gayathri, who wants to take up engineering.

Many school heads said students belonging to Commerce group fared better than those in Science group. Teachers of PSBB, Nungambakkam said one of its students received a centum in computer science. Two students with learning disability of Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya Senior Secondary School secured over 60 and 80 per cent in science and commerce groups respectively and two students of P.S. Senior Secondary School from Biology group got 486 marks.

The Chennai region of Kendriya Vidyalaya, which controls schools in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Lakshadweep, witnessed an increase of 3.3 percentage points over last year's pass percentage of 94.18.

Many school also pointed out that the less than expected scores in English has reduced the overall percentage. Sashikala Sriram, principal, Bala Vidya Mandir, said it probably could be because literature is more textual and correction is more subjective in languages. “But, I am happy 11 students of my school secured 95 in English,” she said.

Hours after the results were announced, anxious parents and students started visiting or calling the regional office of CBSE to know the process of recounting the marks.

Last year around 4,000 applications each were received for Class X and XII. Candidates who wish to apply for verification of marks must apply within 21 days from the date of declaration of results. “Unless there is a variation of 10 marks, I would not recommend my students to go for recounting. The percentage of error is very less, as the paper goes through six to seven stages,” says G. Neelakantan, Principal, Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya Senior Secondary School.