Mumbai: Nearly after a month’s wait, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results for the class 10 and class 12 board examinations on Friday, May 12, 2023. Headquartered in Delhi, the nationwide board witnessed a slight dip in the overall pass percentage for both examinations held completely offline for the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Class 10 pass percentage saw a slight fall which was recorded at 93.12%, compared to last year’s 94.40%. Class 12 results, on the other hand, witnessed a more drastic decrease as the pass percentage slipped down to 87.33% from the previous year’s 92.71%.
Scores for CBSE’s Pune region, which includes Maharashtra, Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli, saw a drop in both examinations too.
Despite these national trends, several Mumbai school heads told The FPJ that the average marks of their student and the highest marks of the school witnessed a rise this year.
“Compared to last year the overall performance of the students is better in terms of more students scoring in the bracket of 91 to 100 and 81 to 90 percent. Most of the students have even secured higher scores in English,” said Madhu Wadke, Principal of Gopi Birla Memorial School, while talking about class 12 results.
While class 12 students prepared for the CBSE board and entrance exams simultaneously, the Class 10 students also went back to attempting a single year-end examination averting the two-term exams adopted by the board during the covid-19 pandemic. On its way to becoming a NEP-ready curriculum, the CBSE board tweaked its paper pattern for this year’s class 10 examinations too.
“Though the board pattern was switched back to the original one-term exam after the pandemic, CBSE upped the number of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and case studies that were asked in the exam. With these two questions accounting for 40% of the paper, students were able to attempt the papers with ease and didn’t have to mug up answers,” said Bhushan Jamsandekar, Academic Head, Narayana e-Techno School.
Around 38,83,710 students appeared for CBSE board examinations this year, of which 21,86,940 students took Class 10 exams and 16,96,770 appeared for Class 12 tests.
These students were also the first batch that completed an entire year of offline schooling before board examinations in 2019. While principals anticipated a more considerable dip in the results due to the offline transition, they heaved a sigh of relief to see that was not the case in Mumbai.
“These children attended offline school in grade 7 and came back to offline mode in grade 10, it was a challenging situation for all of them. Sitting in one place for 3 hours and completing the paper was a big challenge. Despite all hurdles children gave their best," said Dr. Shitala Prabhu, Principal of RBK Global School, Bhayandar.
