SSC pass percent sees small drop
Students along with teachers from Bal Mohan Vidyamandir celebrate their success at the SSC examinations in Shivaji Park, Dadar. (Photo: Debasish Dey)
The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam results, which were released online on Monday, reflected a slight drop in the overall pass percentage of both fresh and repeater candidates as compared to last year.
While the pass percentage for 2015 March exams was 87.73 per cent, the percentage this year is 86.40 per cent. Mumbai students however, kept the city’s performance high by securing the second spot with a pass percentage of 93.89 behind Konkan division, which registered the highest pass percentage with 96.56 per cent. According to officials, increased vigilance especially in the Marathwada and Vidarbha region saw 922 copy cases being detected as a result of which the results took a slight beating.
According to statistics released by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), the total number of students who appeared for the exams held from March 1 across the nine divisions of the board was 17,19,200, which included 9,50,270 boys and 7,38,930 girls. The numbers included both fresh and repeater students. The girls again outshone the boys with a pass percentage of 89.48 per cent as opposed to the boys’s 83.92 pass percentage.
Among the districts, Sindhudurg recorded the highest pass percentage of 97.47 per cent and Parbhani had the lowest at 77.80 per cent.
“For the first time, this year Marathi-medium schools fared slightly worse than English-medium schools. About 12,81,590 Marathi-medium students appeared for the exams and their pass percentage was 93.55 per cent while 2,33,377 appeared in English and their pass percentage was 96.10 per cent,” said Krishna Patil, secretary, MSBSHSE, Pune.
The number of schools registering a hundred per cent pass rate declined this year while those having a zero per cent pass rate has gone up. Out of the 21,466 schools that registered students for the SSC exams, 3,947 schools had a 100 per cent result, which is less than the 4,215 schools that had 100 per cent result last year. In the zero per cent category the number of schools went up to 61 as compared to 21 last year.
Among subjects, out of the 48 subjects for which the exams were held, 12 subjects including Urdu, Telegu, Marathi-Persian, Hindi-Malayalam, Arabic and German. saw a 100 per cent result.
However, “the overall pass percentage and individual percentages of students who appeared for the non-state board exams is high and hence state board students will find it difficult to get admission to the top institutions in the city and state,” said J.M. Abhyankar, former chairman MSBSHSE.