E-Paper
HSC results: Pass percentage dips to 89.79%
At 89.79%, the overall pass percentage of 2026 Class 12 (HSC) exam dropped by 2.09 percentage points from last year’s 91.88%
Pune/Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Saturday declared the Class 12 (HSC) results for the February–March 2026 examination, with the overall pass percentage at 89.79%—a drop of 2.09 percentage points from last year’s 91.88%. Two students secured a perfect 100%.
A total of 14,44,713 regular students had registered for the examination, of whom 14,33,058 appeared and 12,86,843 passed.
Girls once again outperformed boys, recording a pass percentage of 93.15% against 86.80% for boys—a gap of 6.35 percentage points. Among divisions, Konkan topped with 94.14%, while Latur reported the lowest at 84.14%. The Pune division recorded a pass percentage of 91.25%.
Stream-wise, Science continued to lead despite a marginal dip from 97.35% in 2025 to 96.44% this year. Commerce saw a sharper decline, falling from 92.68% to 87.03%. Arts dropped from 80.52% to 78.02%. Vocational courses declined slightly from 83.26% to 82.74%, while ITI courses fell from 82.03% to 81.78%.
The board conducted examinations for 153 subjects, of which 26 recorded 100% results.
Private candidates recorded a pass percentage of 80.21%, while repeater students lagged at 36.44%. The exams were held between February 10 and March 18. The board said special efforts were undertaken to ensure a copying-free and stress-free environment. Students can apply online for rechecking and photocopies of answer sheets from May 3 to May 17. Those who did not pass have been advised to appear for supplementary examinations.
As part of a “copy-free exam” campaign, several centres were marked sensitive and placed under heightened surveillance, with anti-copying squads deployed. Despite these measures, 1,983 cheating cases were recorded, including 1,469 cases of mass copying in Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Amaravati.
“Students and parents should accept the results without any stress. Instructions have been given to the divisional boards to immediately conduct mark verification, photocopying and revaluation of answer sheets of science students appearing in various competitive examinations,” said State Board Chairman Trigun Kulkarni.
Gaurangi Madasnal from the science stream (PCM group) at Fergusson College, Pune, said she was delighted with her performance.
“I am feeling very happy. I was expecting a good result, and my family supported me a lot throughout this journey. I want to pursue a career in engineering. I had expected around 90%, but I have secured 96%. Time management and consistent revision were key to my success,” she said.
Asmeet Dandekar, an arts student from SP College, who secured 96.33%, said he was overwhelmed with his result.
“I am feeling very happy. I was not expecting such high marks and had never imagined that I would be a topper. I am really excited today. I feel consistency throughout the year is the key to good marks, and students should avoid last-minute stress. In the future, I want to pursue ecology as my career,” he said.
