At 93.12%, the overall percentage of students passing the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams, the results of which were announced on Friday, fell by 1.28 percentage points compared to the 94.40 % from last year.
It was the first time since 2019 that the exams were conducted annually. However, the pass rate increased by 2.02 percentage points compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019 (91.10%).
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Sanyam Bhardwaj, the Examination Comptroller of the CBSE, explains the trend: “For both Class 12 and Class 10, the results are only comparable to 2019 when last examinations were conducted for all subjects in the annual mode. Last year, the exams were held in two periods with a different assessment mechanism, which resulted in a higher pass rate.”
In 2022, with the Omicron wave emerging and to avoid a repeat of the previous two years, the CBSE decided for the first time to conduct the exams in two terms. The first term was administered in objective form and the second in subjective form for all subjects, with a gap of several months between the two terms. The board gave a weight of 30:70 to the exam performances of block one and block two to arrive at the final result.
In both 2020 and 2021, due to the intensity of the Covid waves, exams could not be canceled or canceled halfway through and an alternative assessment mechanism was deployed. No classes were held and there were learning gaps due to long Covid induced lockdowns.
THE REPORT CARD
According to the CBSE, a total of 21,84,117 registered for the exams, while 21,65,805 appeared for the test, of which 20,16,779 passed the exam this year. The exams were held between February 15 and March 21. Last year, 21.09.208 students applied, of which 20.93.978 sat and 19.76.668 passed.
In line with the trend, girls again outperformed boys this year at 1.98%. The overall pass rate for girls is 94.25% and for boys 92.27%. For transgender students, the pass rate was 90%.
In the national capital, the overall pass rate was 89.48%, a slight increase from last year’s 89.24%.
The data shows that private schools across the country performed better on both the Class 10 and 12 exams than government and government-aided schools. As in previous years, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JKV) performed best among all schools.
WHY THE DIP?
According to teachers, the slight decrease is due to the change in the way of assessment, as both class 10 and class 12 took the exams completely on an annual basis, unlike last year. Another important factor is also the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), on the basis of which admission to all undergraduate courses is made, unlike the earlier cut-off system. CUET was first introduced in all central universities last year.
Jyoti Arora, Principal of Mount Abu Public school in Delhi, said: “Over the past two to three years, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused many learning losses for students across the spectrum. Private schools have outperformed government schools. Also, for class 10, this was the first time they wrote the full board exam and their writing skills were much less. In addition, their learning gap was much greater, as they were in grades 7-9 in the pandemic years, which are the base years for preparation.”
A major factor for the slight drop in Class 12 results, she said, is that students today are more focused on clearing CUET, as Class 12 results carry no weight in admissions to undergraduate courses.
“Students are very clear that they have to crack CUET to get into a university. So many coaching centers have also sprung up, offering full-fledged programs to complete the entrance exams. Hence class 12 grades don’t matter much to them anymore,” she added.