Mumbai: Results for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams, which took place after a gap of a year, were announced on Wednesday and 93.23% (fresh and repeat candidates) of the 14.75 lakh students in the state who appeared for the exam this year, have passed. The pass percentage of Mumbai division stood at 89.68%.
As per figures shared by the board, 10,047 students in Maharashtra managed to score above 90% this year, of whom 2,766 students are from the Mumbai division. Last year, the board exam was scrapped altogether owing to the second wave of the pandemic.
“Overall, this year’s result is better than that in 2020 and 2019, which is a compliment to students as well as teachers,” said Sharad Gosavi, chairman of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE).
Considering that students had little writing practice in the last two years, the board had decided to offer 30 minutes extra to students for each paper. “The biggest challenge for this batch was to appear for their practical and written examinations offline after two years of online education. These children had less than two months to prepare for offline exams and considering that, the results are outstanding,” said Kulvinder Malhi, coordinator, Father Agnel Multipurpose School and Junior College, Vashi.
“Most students, who had last appeared for a physical exam two years ago, were nervous on the first day of the board exams. However, students eased into the physical exams within a couple of days and were very comfortable with the mode of examination for the rest of the session,” said Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College, Churchgate.
Girls outperformed boys in the board exam with 91.01% girls clearing the exam in Mumbai division compared to 88.51% boys. The figure at the state level stood at 94.71% girls compared to 92.03% boys.
The Mumbai division—which also includes Thane and Raigad and Palghar, as once again fared poorly this year. The state’s overall success rate was the lowest compared to the other divisions.
In 2021, in the peak of the second Covid wave, most school education boards including MSBSHSE decided to scrap board exams. Students were instead promoted based on their performance in the previous two academic years. The state board decided to follow a 30:30:40 formula, giving weightage to marks in classes 10, 11 and 40% of the weightage to internals marks scores in class 12. This formula resulted in an explosion of marks and an almost perfect pass percentage of above 99% across the state. For the first time ever, 42 students had scored 100% in the state.