Tamil Nadu recorded an overall pass percentage of 94.5, registering a slight increase from last year’s results. But there is a sharp dip in the number of students who have scored high marks.
Announcing the results, Minister for School Education K.A. Sengottaiyan said that while 96.4% of girls who wrote the SSLC exam had passed, the pass percentage of boys was 92.5.
Sivaganga district topped the State, followed by Erode and Virudhunagar. As many as 5,584 schools had secured 100% results, the Minister said.
This year, about 9.5 lakh students from schools across the State took the SSLC exam, nearly 32,000 students less than the previous year.
Less no. of candidates
The number of candidates taking the examinations has seen a steady decline for the past four years.
An analysis of the results showed that only 9,402 students scored above 481 marks in comparison to 38,613 students last year. One reason was that the SSLC papers had deviated from the usual pattern. Tamil 1 and mathematics papers had questions which needed thorough reading and understanding of the textbooks.
“When compared to the last four years, the papers definitely were a lot more challenging,” said N. Reshma, a student of the CSI Ewart Matriculation Higher Secondary School.
The change, however, came as a shock to a few students, said P.K. Ilamaran, president of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Association. Vishnucharan Paneerselvam, correspondent of the Shree Niketan group of schools, said that the shift in evaluation patterns was apparent this year with the Plus II and SSLC exams.
“Now, students need a reorientation right from Class VI to not just go by the questions at the back of their textbooks. The shift in evaluation is a welcome sign and even for us as heads of institutions, the results based on these exams give us clarity about the performance of our students,” he said.
With students receiving their results directly on their mobile phones, celebrations across most schools were muted and students only began to trickle in to enquire about admissions for Class XI. Students who have failed can take up a supplementary examination, which will be conducted as early as June 28 following which they can chose to continue in Plus I.
91.58% for Kancheepuram
Kancheepuram district recorded 91.58 pass percentage in the class X exams.
Collector P. Ponnaiah said 47,954 students, out of the 52,365 who appeared for the examination, had passed. As many as 406 students have scored more than 481 marks, 2,808 have secured marks between 451 and 480; 3,136 between 426 and 450; 3,817 between 401 and 425, he added.
