Mumbai,May 27: It’s an irony of sorts that, while the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) pass percentage for the Chennai region – which includes Mumbai has been inching upwards over the last three years, the pass percentage for Maharashtra is marginally lower than what it was in earlier years.
The CBSE Board announced its results for the Class X board examinations in three regions, Chennai, Ajmer and Panchkula, on Tuesday.
The Chennai region improved its score this year, with a pass percentage of 95.6%, up by 0.35% from last year. Meanwhile, Maharashtra saw a slight dip in its overall pass percentage, from 97.92% to 97.73%. This year, however, saw an additional 1,185 students appearing for the CBSE exams from the state.
For the 32-odd CBSE schools in and around Mumbai, the results spelt good news. Mumbai boy Kandarp Khandwala, a student of R N Podar School, Santa Cruz, scored a whopping 98.6% in the exam, and S S Kausik of Apeejay School, Nerul, was not far behind, with 98.4%.”The students have performed very well at the CBSE exams this year.
The performance of schools in Mumbai was extremely good,” said N Nagaraju, CBSE’s regional officer for the Chennai zone, which includes Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Goa, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
However, a look at the overall performance (pass percentage), shows that girls once again beat the boys in this year’s Board examinations – the pass percentage for girls was higher than that of the boys, both in Maharashtra as well as in the entire Chennai region. The highest pass percentage in the region was from Pondicherry.
Crossing the 90% mark is no longer daunting for city students. In fact, at some schools, half the students who sat for the exam this year scored 90% and above. For instance, at Apeejay School in Nerul, of a class of 182, 100 students scored 90% and over, of which 27 secured 95% and above.
Nearly 44% of all students who appeared for the exam from R N Podar School scored either 90% or above.
Scoring cent per cent is no longer reserved for subjects like Mathematics. Eight students of Rajhans Vidyalaya, Andheri, got full marks in Social Studies, much to the astonishment of school principal, Deepshikha Srivastava.
“There’s been a sudden rise in the number of students who have scored 100% in social studies,” she said. At R N Podar, four students scored 100% in Social Studies.
Many students say they are surprised to have scored higher in languages and Social Sciences than in the traditionally high-scoring subjects such as Math and Science. While Sourabh Rao, the topper from Naval Children’s School at Colaba, pulled off a cent per cent score in Social Studies, he scored 99% in Mathematics.
Similarly, Vibha Narayanan, the school topper at Arunodaya Public School, Thane, got full marks in Sanskrit, while her Math and Science marks were 95% and 92% respectively.
Hindi, too, has turned out to be a high scorer this year, with a large number of students scoring 99% in the subject. “Students are now scoring more in Hindi than even in the Sciences,” said Avnita Bir, principal of R N Podar School, Santa Cruz. She feels that, with an increase in language and Social Studies marks, there has simultaneously been a decline in science marks.
But having done well this year, city students aren’t complaining.
–Agencies