Maharashtra HSC Results: Significant dip in pass percentage, down to 91.25 %

Addressing a press conference in Pune, MSBSHSE chairman Sharad Gosavi said the dip in pass percentage needs to be looked at in light of the changed circumstances under which the exam was held. “This was the first time when the board exam was carried out with full syllabus and no extra time after the Covid pandemic,” he said.

Even as the pass percentage witnessed a sharp drop this year, it is marginally higher compared to the results of 2019-20 before the pandemic, which recorded a pass percentage of 90.66 per cent.

Calling it a rather reliable evaluation, Maharashtra School Principals Association spokesperson Mahendra Ganpule said, “After the inflation of marks seen during the pandemic years, the HSC results declared today have shown the original status. The board examination truly went back to the traditional mode, from the pre-pandemic times. These students have appeared for the examination without any relaxations, unlike the past two years.”

The club of students having scored 90 per cent and above has also shrunk. This year, 7,696 students have scored 90 per cent and above. Last year, there were 10,047 students in this category whereas a year before that a whopping 91,420 students had scored 90 per cent and above.

Elaborating on how a combination of factors led to a more “realistic result” this year, Ganpule said, “This is the batch which had missed its Class 10 board examination making this the first experience of board exam for them. The fear factor associated with the first board exam too played a role in the results. But in such a critical time again, girls have shown a better performance.”

The overall pass percentage among girls was higher by 4.59 percentage points than that of boys with 93.73 per cent and 89.14 per cent, respectively.

This year, the HSC exam was held from February 21 to March 21. All the relaxations introduced due to pandemic conditions such as reduced-syllabus, additional time to write papers, exam centres in respective colleges among others were withdrawn this year. And a strict anti-copy campaign was launched by the state board.

Of the 14,28,114 registered students, 14,16,371 appeared for the exam and 12,92,468 students were declared successful with students of science stream recording the highest pass percentage of 96.09. This was followed by the Commerce stream with 90.42 per cent. Vocational courses recorded a pass percentage of 89.25 whereas Arts stream saw the lowest pass percentage at 84.04.

Among all the nine divisions of the Maharashtra state board, Konkan division recorded the highest pass percentage of 96.01, followed by Pune with 93.34 while the Mumbai division saw the lowest pass percentage with 88.23.