After a continuous decline in the last five years, the number of students appearing for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination in the state has risen this year.
More than 16.09 lakh students have registered for the Class 10 board examination, which will start on Thursday (March 1) and will continue till March 22. While this figure is higher than 15.77 lakh registrations recorded last academic year 2023-24, it’s still lower than 16.38 lakh students who signed up for the exam in 2022-23. The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination attributed the decline in the number of students to rising enrolment in the schools affiliated to the national boards, CBSE and ISCE.
Demographics
The tests will be held at 5,086 centres across the state, including 1,060 in Mumbai division, which covers the city as well as Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts. Around 3.64 lakh students, 12,000 more than last year, will take the test in the region. These include 1.9 lakh boys and 1.74 lakh girls.
This is the second year after the Covid-19 when the board examinations are being conducted without any pandemic-era relaxations, though the state board has decided to persist with the additional 10 minutes given for each paper at the end of the test. Last year, the board had scrapped its previous rule of distributing question papers 10 minutes before the scheduled exam start time. Following negative feedback from parents and academics over this, the board decided to add 10 minutes towards the end of the exam.
