Nagpur: For the fifth year in a row, Nagpur division has managed to produce probable toppers in all three streams in the state board HSC results declared on Wednesday. On the flip side, it was relegated to the second-last position among nine divisions in the overall standings.
Though known for producing state toppers, the division has never broken into the top three positions since more than a decade. Twice it managed to bag fourth spot in 2011 and 2015, while in 2013, it was last among nine divisions.
Last year, Nagpur division produced science and commerce toppers from the state, while it missed topping the arts stream by a whisker of 0.5%. This year, Aditya Dokwal from Ambedkar College bagged the honours with 98% marks in science, Nidhi Suchak from Adarsh Vidya Mandir topped the commerce stream with 96.30% and Radha Thengdi from LAD topped the arts stream with an impressive score of 97%.
Amravati division finished a notch above Nagpur at sixth position with 88.08%. Both divisions followed the overall state trend where results were down by 1.09%. While Nagpur’s results slipped by 1.48%, Amravati went down by 1.04%.
About 1.64 lakh students appeared in the exam of which 1.44 lakh managed to clear it from the Nagpur division. The science stream witnessed an impressive success rate of 96.26%, up by 0.16% as compared to last year. Commerce witnessed a marginal fall with 89.55% as compared to 89.89% last year.
The Minimum Competency Vocational Courses (MCVC) witnessed a sharp fall of 5.03% as it recorded 80.54% (85.57% last year) pass percentage. Arts too was down by 3.92% (82.31% last year). This is the primary reason behind the overall decrease in the passing rate.
Nagpur district topped in the division with 89.72%, followed by Gondia and Bhandara, while Gadchiroli ended at the bottom. Last year, Bhandara had topped with 92.93% and was followed by Gondia with 90.40%. Nagpur was at third position with 89.54%. About 214 colleges secured cent per cent success and no institution was found with zero per cent record.
Washim continued its dominance in Amravati division with 90.40% pass percentage followed by Buldhana (89.71%), Akola (88.32%), Amravati (87.48%) and Yavatmal (85.65%). Last year also, Washim topped the chart with 91.31%, followed by Buldhana (90.81%), Amravati (89.95%), Akola (89.81%) and Yavatmal (84.80%).
As has been the trend since the last many years, girls outshone boys by a good margin. In Nagpur, their success rate was 84.24% while the boys were at 91%. In Amravati, it was 91.85% and 84.93%, respectively.
The repeaters’ success rate decreased to 33.53%, a drop of 5.28% as compared to last year (38.81). In 2016, their success rate was 38.61%. About 7,674 students’ repeaters appeared for exam of which 2,570 cleared it.
English is regaining its notoriety of being a killer subject in Nagpur division. For the third year in a row, it has managed to record less pass percentage in comparison to other major subjects. This year about 86.56% managed to clear the exam followed by mathematics at 96.28%. Last year, English had a success rate of 88.98. It was followed by Marathi at 95.78% and mathematics and statistics at 96.21%.
Nagpur division can however take solace as it recorded fewer number of copying cases at 94, as compared to 154 last year. The backward district of Gadchiroli led the chart with 46 cases and were followed by Gondia and Bhandara. For a number of years, the division carried the infamous tag of highest number of copying and other cases of unfair means.
Though there was a dip in results, those scoring distinction saw a jump of nearly 1,000 students. This may give the jitters to CBSE and ICSE students as all will be applying for various graduation courses on par.
Divisional secretary Ravikant Deshpande said the board had made efforts to lift the pass percentage by organizing various awareness programmes for principals, teachers and also for the board officials. He added that they would step up efforts to increase the score next year.
