Mumbai: The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam results, which came out on Monday, saw Class 12 students improving their performance across the streams. However, it’s the Science stream that gave the colleges and students in the city the biggest reason to feel elated.
Consider this: Last year, the Science stream pass percentage of Mumbai division lagged at 89.96%, well below the state’s 95.12%. However, this year, 94.19% students from the region cleared the Class 12 test, compared to 96.65% from across Maharashtra. There was up to two percentage point increase in other two streams in the divisional as well as overall results.
The Science subjects Physics, Chemistry and Biology recorded the highest, almost 99%, success rate in Maharashtra. In Mumbai, there was more than three percentage point rise across the three subjects. History, Geography and Mathematics are some of the other subjects that saw considerable improvement in the city students’ performance. Most of the subjects recorded higher success rate across divisions.
This was the first full-fledged board exam for the current batch of Class 12 students, as they had faced a truncated syllabus in the Class 10 exam in 2022, due to the academic loss resulting from Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns. The tests were held at students’ own junior college. Last year, the board re-introduced non-home exam centres and reverted to all pre-Covid norms for the Class 10 and 12 exams.
St Xavier’s College at Fort also witnessed its Science pass percentage increase from last year’s 89% to almost 95%. “The single biggest factor for the improved performance is that we have finally shed the training effect of Covid-19. The students are back to the books. While their writing skills had taken a considerable hit during the pandemic, they have recovered from it. The insistence on classroom attendance also paid dividend,” said Savio D'souza, vice-principal the college.
D’souza attributed the higher Science scores to the students’ willingness to work harder. “Science is a discipline that needs hard grind and the ability to sit and work for hours together. Our students have put in longer hours and done much better than previous batches,” he said.
Lily Bhushan, principal of KES’ Shroff College, Andheri, which recorded a cent per cent success rate in Commerce, credited their teachers for their success. “We conducted multiple prelims exams to prepare students for the final test. Our teachers worked really hard with the students. We also didn’t compromise on the attendance,” she said.
