College cut-offs to soar as 70,004 CBSE Class 12 students cross 95%

Almost universal pass percentage of 99.37% after cancellation of exams

July 30, 2021 02:46 pm | Updated 06:08 pm IST - NEW DELHI

The CBSE headquarters at Shiksha Sadan in New Delhi.

The CBSE headquarters at Shiksha Sadan in New Delhi.

The number of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) students scoring above 95% in Class 12 has almost quadrupled over the last two years, meaning that cut-offs for college admissions are likely to hit levels never seen before.

In a year when schools were closed and board examinations cancelled, 99.37% of the CBSE’s beleaguered 2021 cohort passed their final year, a huge leap from the 88.78% pass of the previous year. However, a sharper spike in the number of high-scoring students means that the marks needed to get into top colleges will shoot up significantly as well.

Two years ago, before COVID-19 disrupted the education system, an elite 1.5% of the 2019 class -- just 17,693 students -- scored above 95%, giving most of them a reasonably good chance of admission into a college of their choice. This year, that group has grown almost 300% to a whopping 70,000 students. They make up 5.4% of their class.

Overall, 2.2 lakh students, 17% of their class, scored above 90% this year. This is more than double the 94,299 students who crossed that mark in 2019.

The overall results are not really comparable with past years given that the 2021 board exams were completely cancelled due to the pandemic, which had also partially affected the 2020 exams. This year, final results were calculated by schools in accordance with a Supreme Court-approved formula using Class 10 board exam scores, Class 11 final exam marks and the marks obtained in Class 12 practical exams and internal assessments such as mid-terms, unit tests and pre-board exams. Schools were also asked to moderate marks as needed to ensure that the overall performance of their students aligned with the average past performance over the last three years.

No merit list

Given this unusual marking system, the Board decided not to publish any merit list of the top 0.1% of students this year. Nor will it issue merit certificates.

Results are still under process for 1,060 new schools that did not have any past performances to use as reference, as well as a few other schools that had not completed the moderation process. This means that the results have been delayed for 65,184 candidates whose marks will be declared by August 5.

For 60,443 private candidates, as well as regular students who are unhappy with their marks assigned per the tabulation formula , the CBSE will hold offline examinations between August 16 and September 15. The 6,149 students who were placed under compartment this year will also be allowed to write this exam.

Of the 13.04 lakh candidates for whom results were declared, 12.96 lakh passed Class 12. Girls performed marginally better, with a 99.67% pass percentage, in comparison to 99.13% for boys.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya schools as well as the schools of the Central Tibetan Schools Administration all achieved 100% pass percentage.

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