Unlike Class 12, big drop in CBSE Class 10 90%+ scorers

NEW DELHI: The CBSE Class 10 results declared on Wednesday came as a surprise for many, with a falling number of high-scorers. Contrary to the Class 12 results, the number of students scoring 90% and above in Class 10 dropped to 1,84,358, a drop of over 40,000. The ones scoring 95% and above this year was 41,804, a drop of 15,452.
Even in terms of pass percentage, the increase was a marginal 0.36 percentage points. The pass percentage reached 91.46%. In 2019, the increase in pass percentage was 4.4 percentage points.
CBSE was able to conduct the exams for Class 10 main papers before the lockdown. It was only students of northeast Delhi who had missed the papers due to the riots and the four exams were to be conducted between July 1 to 15. For them, the marks were calculated on the basis of the average of the best three performances, and it was also one of the reasons why the board didn’t declare a merit list this year.
The board will only hold compartment exams when the situation is "conducive", which means there will no second chance for the students to improve their performance.
A total of 1,50,198 students have been placed in compartment, which comes to 8.02%, an increase from 7.88% last year.
Overall, girls have a better pass percentage at 93.31%, an increase from 92.45% in 2019. There has been no change in pass percentage for boys at 90.14%. The figure for transgender students has fallen sharply — 78.95% this year as against 94.74% in 2019.
Trivandrum region is again at the top with 99.28%, followed by Chennai and Bengaluru at 98.95% and 98.23%, respectively. However, unlike Class 12 results, Delhi region is in the second last position with a pass percentage of 85.86%. But among the other regions, Delhi has seen the highest percentage-point increase from 80.97% last year.
Among institutions, Kendriya Vidyalayas have retained its top position, followed by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. KVs' pass percentage dropped from 99.47% last year to 99.23% this year. However, the performance of private schools has seen a drop — from 94.15% last year to 92.81% in 2020.
Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School, said, "I held a meeting with the teachers of my school to explore the reasons behind the decrease. We are not being able to comprehend. I was just told that mathematics and science papers were a bit tough."
But Tania Joshi, principal of The Indian School, believes, "This could be because now questions are not about rote learning. This has to be the way forward. Even in the internal assessment schools are marking judiciously."
Alka Kapur, principal of Modern Public School, said the evaluation carried out at homes could be one factor. Due to Covid-19, papers were sent to the homes of evaluators.
"When answer-sheets are checked at centres, the answers are discussed and marked. It has been casual checking and how responsibly the evaluators followed the marking scheme is one big question. Students are demoralised, especially the science results have been very demotivating," said Kapur.