With a pass percentage of 97.37, the Chennai region, which includes Karnataka, bagged the second spot in the country in the class 10 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examination, the results of which were announced on Tuesday. The examination was conducted between March 5 and April 4.
The pass percentage has dipped by 2.25 points when compared with the last year’s 99.62% for the region.
The Thiruvanthapuram region has bagged the top spot with 99.6% passes. The Chennai region’s pass percentage is, however, higher than the overall pass percentage of 86.7%. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, with 97.31% passes, fared the best in the country.
While the maximum marks — 499 out of 500 — was scored by four students, none of them is from Karnataka.
The maximum number of students who bagged above 90% and 95% were from the Chennai region. While 26,670 students from the region bagged above 90%, 5,737 students bagged above 95%. Overall, as many as 1.31 lakh students secured above 90%, while 27,476 students managed to get above 95%.
A CBSE press release said 14.08 lakh of the total 16.24 lakh students cleared the exam across the country.
Girls with 88.67% passes did better than boys who registered 85.32% passes, according to the release.
Board exam
The board-based exam, which was made mandatory this year, has received mixed reactions from CBSE school authorities and students. While a section of them said it helped them prepare for competitive examinations, others said it had increased competition.
Till last year, students were given a choice between board examination and school-based examination. While the CBSE conducts the board-based examination across the country, individual schools used to conduct the school-based examination.
The students this year were given percentage unlike the Cumulative Grade Point Average that was allotted to students till last year. Jyotsna Nair, principal of National Public School, Koramangala, said, “The board exam was a good change as it allowed the children to prepare for harder and more competitive exams”.
Dakshayini Kanna, principal of Harvest International School, said the new pattern had not affected the performance or percentage, and that students had fared well.
Manju Balasubramaniam, principal of Delhi Public School, Bangalore North, said the shift was for the better as it allowed students to prepare for future exams, and that schools had prepared the students enough for the exams so that they were not burdened with the syllabus.
But Niveditha S. Iyer, a student of National Public School, Koramangala, said, “The board based exam was slightly harder as it involved studying the entire year’s syllabus, which was not something they were used to”.
Sanskriti Ahuja, a student of Harvest International School, said even though it was a difficult shift, it would help them for their future examination.
