Mumbai found itself in the bottom rung in Maharashtra after the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam results were announced on Tuesday.
The exams were marred by five consecutive question paper leaks. Mumbai division, which extends to Thane, Palghar, and Raigad districts, recorded an overall success rate (of fresh and repeater candidates combined) of 85.34%, up from last year’s 83.05%, and Maharashtra, too, moving up to 87.14% from 84.25%.
Mumbai, however, was relegated to last place after Konkan outperformed the other nine divisions with a pass rate of 94.29%, followed by Kolhapur (89.35%), Pune (88.77%) and others. Nasik (85.72%) beat Mumbai to the eighth place.
Officials attributed Mumbai’s poor performance to the 64% passing rate among private students — the board allows students who failed Class 11, to appear directly for Class 12 exams by filling the form-17.
Of the 49, 358 private students in Maharashtra, nearly half are in Mumbai. “This drags down the division’s overall performance,” said Duttatray Jagtap, divisional chairperson.
“Pass rates jumped because more students appeared for the exam. but we do not see significant improvement in their performance, it is almost the same as last years,” said Gangadhar Mhamane, chairperson of the board.
The quality of results remained low across the state, although 3,819 students joined the 90s club — a tad more than 3,360 last year. Of the 13 lakh pupils passing the exams, nearly six lakh secured a second class, scoring below 60%, barely one lakh managed a score above 75%, meriting a distinction.
{{/usCountry}}The quality of results remained low across the state, although 3,819 students joined the 90s club — a tad more than 3,360 last year. Of the 13 lakh pupils passing the exams, nearly six lakh secured a second class, scoring below 60%, barely one lakh managed a score above 75%, meriting a distinction.
{{/usCountry}}The top scorers, however, failed to match their counterparts in CBSE, ISC, who crossed the 99% and 98% mark in Class 12 exams. Anand Jawade from Nagpur scored 98.16%, Tania Rajabally, from KC College, Churchgate, scored 96.46%.
Principals said this means that HSC students might take a beating in admissions to coveted courses at the degree-college-level.