Karnataka has recorded a pass percentage of 73.7 in the 2018-19 Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination — an increase of 1.77 percentage points from last year. As many as 6.08 lakh candidates of the 8.25 lakh who appeared for the examination in March and April cleared all the papers.
This is the highest pass percentage since 2016. The results were announced on Tuesday by Principal Secretary to the Department of Primary and Secondary Education S.R. Umashankar. They have been released within a month of the end of the exam as the Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board (KSEEB) has digitised the process, including at the evaluation level. Mr. Umashankar attributed the improvement in student performance to remedial coaching and the instructions given to teachers to analyse the marks of students while they were at school.
This year, two girls — Srujana D. of St. Philomena English High School, Bengaluru, and Naganjali Naika of Colaba Vithob Shanbhag Kalbagkar High School, Uttara Kannada — bagged the top spot with a perfect score of 625 marks.
A total of 170 students take up the top six spots with a score of 620 and above. Of the 13 students sharing the top two spots, 10 are girls.
Some trends have continued this year as well. For instance, girls, with a pass percentage of 79.59, performed better than boys (68.46%). Rural students, with 76/67% pass, outshone their urban counterparts (70.05%).
Among government school students, 77.84% passed, while 82.72% of those who attended private unaided schools joined them. In aided schools, the pass percentage is 77.21.
Hassan district, with 89.33% pass, is on top in the State, while Yadgir has fared the worst with a pass percentage of 53.95. As many as 1,626 schools scored 100% pass, while 46 schools recorded zero pass percentage.
19,000 benefit from grace marks
According to officials, nearly 19,000 students cleared the SSLC examination because they were allotted grace marks. Candidates are eligible for this at the result processing stage if they have secured aggregate marks in all subjects to pass the examination, but have failed in a maximum of two subjects. The quantum of grace marks awarded will be less than 5% of the maximum marks in the paper.