CBSE Class 10 results: Four students top exam with 499 out of 500 marks
CBSE Class 10 result: Four students scored 499 out of 500 marks to be joint toppers in the exam. Girls did better than boys with an overall passing percentage of 88.67 compared to 85.32 for boys
Four students fell just one mark short of a clean sweep while topping the first compulsory board exams for Class 10 students conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in nine years, results declared on Tuesday showed.
Prakhar Mittal of Delhi Public School, Gurugram; Rimzhim Agarwal of RP Public School, Bijnor (UP); Nandini Garg of Scottish International School, Shamli (UP); and Sreelakshmi G of Bhavan’s Vidyalaya, Kochi (Kerala) each scored 499 marks out of 500. Seven students finished joint second with 498 marks and 14 students joint third with 497, the CBSE said.
This year’s was the first batch since 2009 to take the compulsory Class 10 board examination. The board had replaced the compulsory examination with a Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system of assessment and made the Class 10 exams optional. Students had the option to either sit for a school-based or board-based final exam. Instead of marks, students were given grades.
Female students, with a pass percentage of 88.67%, did better than the boys, who had a pass percentage of 85.32%. The number of students scoring 90% and above was 131,493; 27,426 students scored 95% and above. The pass percentage for differently-abled students was 92.55%.
The overall pass percentage at 86.70% marks a drop of 4.24 percentage points from the performance last year, when the exam was not mandatory.
On the lower pass percentage, CBSE officials said it was not a bad result in comparison to 2009 when the last compulsory board exam was held.
Students this year sat for a first full syllabus examination; under the CCE, they were evaluated throughout the year and exams were conducted for a portion of the syllabus at fixed intervals.
“If you compare it with the 2009 result (88.84%) when the last compulsory board exams was held, then the difference is only 2.14 percentage points. It also means that schools were possibly inflating marks, as almost 50% students used to give school-based exams till last year,” said a CBSE official on condition of anonymity.
In 2007, 84.44% of the students who attempted the exams passed, and the pass percentage increased to 87.08% in 2008. It steadily rose over the years to a peak of 98.87% in 2014, and then started declining again.
Last year, 90.95% of the students who appeared for the exam passed.
Education experts said the pass percentage may have declined because of the no-detention policy under which students are promoted till Class 9, irrespective of their academic performance.
A Delhi school principal said: “These students were not held back till class 9 for poor performance and this is their first time to give a full syllabus exam.”
The principal requested anonymity.
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) schools recorded the best pass percentage at 97.31% followed by Kendriya Vidyalayas at 95.96% and independent schools at 89.49%.Government schools recorded a pass percentage of 63.97%, the lowest among all the categories.
The Thiruvananthapuram region recorded the highest pass percentage at 99.6% followed by the Chennai region at 97.37% and Ajmer at 91.86%.
The Delhi region recorded a pass percentage of 78.62%, which is marginally better than last year’s 78.09%.
Delhi government schools, which outperformed private schools in the Class 12 exams, recorded a pass percentage at 69.32%, over 20 percentage points less than last year’s 92.44%.
The board exams were marred by controversy this year with suspected leaks of the Class 10 mathematics paper and Class 12 economics paper over the social media being reported from parts of the country, including the national capital.
The board decided to not conduct a re-test for Class 10 in the “interest of students”. The re-test in the Class 12 economics paper was conducted on April 25.
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