For the first time since 2013, the Plus Two exam results showed a slight dip this year with the overall pass percentage at 91.10. The pass percentage last year was 92.10.
Announcing the results on Wednesday, School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan attributed the change to tougher question papers and stringent evaulation this year. “This is to prepare the students to succeed in competitive exams in the future,” the Minister said.
While 1,171 students scored over 1,180 marks last year, this year only 231 students managed to do so. This year, 40.44% of the students scored below 700 marks compared to 31.45% last year. In government schools, 84.60% of students cleared the exams this year against 86.87% last year. Virudhunagar continued to top the districts in the State and had nearly 97.05% of its students clearing the exams. Villupuram stood last.
Girls excel
Girls continued to outperform boys in the State. While girls secured a pass percentage of 94.1, boys recorded 87.7 pass percentage.
Though several students found the mathematics paper slightly hard, 96.19% of the students cleared it. Students had also found a few questions in the economics paper challenging.
With a majority of the students having got their results through SMS, not many thronged the schools to check their results. Many campuses saw students trickling in to meet their friends and teachers only an hour after the results were announced.
G. Shanmugavel, Headmaster of the Government Higher Secondary School, MGR Nagar, said that the SMS system had made it much more easier for the students. “Even the schools received the results by e-mail this year instead of having to procure the Tabulated Mark List (TML) from the CEO’s office,” he said.
Changes in evaluation
G.J. Manoharan, principal of the MCC Higher Secondary School, said the number of students who scored over 190 marks in science subjects had come down. “While the commerce stream students too said that they had found the papers challenging compared to the papers last year, they seem to have got better marks and we have 31 centums,” he said.
Stating that the evaluation patterns were tougher compared to the previous year and similar to that of CBSE schools, C. Satish, director of the Paavai Group of Schools, said the tougher question papers and the strict evaluation were an indication that the State board was making students move away from rote learning.
“Not announcing the ranks too has meant that parents and students, especially in schools in the Namakkal and Salem belt, have been more at ease and not focussed just upon knowing where their children stand. These steps will contribute towards better learning of concepts,” he said.
