CBSE Class 10th result: Why fewer kids cleared exam despite better show by govt schools in Delhi

Government schools of Delhi have done better this year in the CBSE Class 10 board examinations, the results of which was declared on Saturday.

According to data, around 92.44% students from government schools who appeared for the Class 10 CBSE exams managed to pass this year. This is an improvement of 3.19% from 2016’s pass percentage.

The results last year had raised some concerns about government schools, whose pass percentage had slumped to 89.25%, much lower than the previous year’s results.

This year, out of the 1,55,263 students who appeared for the Class 10 exam, 1,43,525 managed to crack it. Of these, 428 students have also a managed a perfect CGPA of 10.

Atishi Marlena, adviser to Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia, credited the teachers for this year’s performance. “We invested in infrastructure, teacher training and instilled a sense of greater accountability. This has paid off,” she said.

This year’s pass percentage figures also threw up some interesting numbers.

While 92.5% of the female students who appeared for the 10th grade exams across the country passed it, 93.4% of the boys have managed to crack the exam. This goes against the tide, as over the past few years girls have performed better in these exams than boys.

Delhi’s overall performance, however, recorded a huge dip of 13.67 percentage points, with government schools doing better than their last year’s result by reporting a pass percentage of 92.44, a jump of 3.19 % points.

This year only 78.09% of students from Delhi, who appeared for the Class 10 exams, managed to crack it.

The Capital has been recording a constant slump in the Class 10 CBSE exams results since 2013.

From 98.40 pass percentage in 2013, the pass percentage in Delhi had plummeted to 91.76% in 2016. The number further plummeted to 78.09% this year.

CBSE officials said that one of the reason for the sharp decline this year was because of higher number of open school students appearing for the exam and very few managing to clear it.

Around 64,570 candidates appeared for the exam as private students, with only 1,654 of them clearing the exam, a pass percentage of only 2.56. The number of private candidates this year increased by 13 times, as compared to last year’s 4,489.

Officials from the Directorate of Education (DOE) said higher number of students taking the exam as private candidates was a result of their consistent effort to encourage out of school students appear for their Class 10 exam at least.

“Our school contact programme has been encouraging more students to take the exam. The pass percentage for them is lower, but at least the out of school system students are attempting to take the exam,” said DOE director Saumya Gupta.

On the whole too, pass percentages for Class 10 exams have been slipping since 2014. This year, overall, 90.95% of students who appeared for the exams managed at least a passing grade. This is a few notches below 2014 pass percentage of 98.87% or even last year’s 96.21%. Sources have also expressed apprehensions if moderation policy was even applied to the Class 10 results.