While the girls outperformed boys yet again in the class 12 results declared on Tuesday, there was a dip in the overall pass percentage figure as compared to last year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC).
The overall pass percentage figure of 85.88 announced by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) was the lowest in the HSC results of the last three years.
In 2018, the cumulative pass percentage figure stood at 88. 41 — a slide in little more than one percentage point from 2017’s overall pass figure of 89.50%. The HSC pass percentage recorded in 2016 was 86.60.
“This year, the cumulative pass percentage dipped by 2.53 percentage points as compared with the figure recorded in 2018. However, there is nothing unnatural in this as the overall pass percentages keep varying each year and are generally robust,” said Shakuntala Kale, Chairperson, MSBSHSE.
This year, girl students recorded a robust pass figure 90.25%, far outclassing the boys of whom only 82.40% could clear the exams.
Ms. Kale informed that this year, there were 22 categories of invalid students who cumulatively recorded a creditable pass percentage figure of 92.60.
This year, a total of 12.21 lakh students cleared successfully out of the 14.23 lakh students across the nine HSC divisions in Maharashtra who appeared for the examinations held over a course of month between February 21 and March 20.
7, 91,682 male students and 6, 30, 254 female students had appeared for the exams of which 6,52,379 male and 5,68,780 female students passed the exam.
The Science stream recorded a pass percentage of 92.60 — a decrease in three percentage points as compared to the 95.85 % students who had passed last year.
The Arts stream, too, recorded a dip of nearly two percentage points, with 76.45% students clearing as compared with 78.93% who had passed in 2018.
Likewise, the Commerce stream recorded a slide of more than one percentage point, with 88.28% students clearing the exam as compared with 89.50% students who had passed last year.
The pass percentage figure for vocational candidates was 78.93 as opposed to 82.18% of the students in this stream who had successfully cleared their exams last year.
“This year, in a bid to combat incidents of pre-exam tension, we recruited a total of 57 councillors to help students suffering bouts of extreme stress and prolonged despair. In a bid to preclude any malpractices during the conduct of the exams, 252 flying squads were deployed across the nine divisions in the State,” said Ms. Kale, expressing satisfaction at the successful conduct of the exams.
The Konkan division, where the least number of students appeared (31,764), notched up the highest pass percentage in the State among the nine HSC divisions recording 93.23%.
The Pune division — where 2.4 lakh students appeared — came a commendable second after the Konkan division, with 87.88% students clearing their exams.
The Mumbai division, where the maximum number of students appeared (3.16 lakh), registered the second lowest pass percentage with 83.84% — way below its pass figure of 87.44% in 2018.
This time, the Nagpur division, where 1.58 lakh students appeared, had the dubious honour of recording the lowest pass percentage figure of 82.51.
The Nashik division (where 1.59 lakh students appeared) recorded 84.77% pass. Incidentally, the division had recorded the lowest in 2018, with 86.13% passing.