The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) released board examination results for Class 10 and Class 12 on Friday. It has also decided that this year no merit list would be released in view of "exceptional circumstances". The results were normally released in May but this year they got postponed because of COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the board, this year the pass percentage was 99.34 for Class 10. This was up 0.8 per cent from last year. While on the other hand, the pass percentage for Class 12 was 96.84. Class 12 also witnessed a marginal increase in the pass percentage.

In June, the Supreme Court had ordered that the pending examinations should be cancelled in view of the rising number of coronavirus in the country. A few exams had taken place before the pandemic gripped the country while the remaining that kept getting postponed. The results of Class 10 and Class 12 were based on the exams which were held.

"Given the exceptional circumstances, this year CISCE will not be publishing a merit list for either the ICSE or ISC year 2020 examinations," CISCE Chief Executive and Secretary Gerry Arathoon said. "This year has been exceptionally difficult for everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the multiple national and states' lockdowns, coupled with many other related problems," he added.

A total of 2,06,525 students gave Class 10 ICSE examinations this year, only 1,377 could not obtain the passing marks. For Class 12, 85,611 students cleared the exams while 2,789 could not meet the passing criteria.

"At this point, I would like to commend our candidates, who have shown exemplary resilience and fortitude during this crisis period, faced with the agony of a long wait for a possible delayed examination in the remaining papers, the subsequent prolonged wait for the results while simultaneously continuing their studies of the next class or preparing for the entrance examinations. Your patience and perseverance are to be admired," Arathoon said.

(With PTI Inputs)