The State school boards of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Telangana had more than 65% of class 12 students in the science stream in 2023, while the State boards of Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, and Nagaland had more than 75% of class 12 students in the Arts stream, data with the Union government shows. Among the boards, the Board of Intermediate Education, Andhra Pradesh had the highest percentage of class 12 students in the science stream (78%), while the Meghalaya Board of School Education had the lowest (11.4%). In the Meghalaya State board, 81.1% of class 12 students were in the Arts stream. The Tripura Board of Secondary Education had 84.6% of students in the Arts stream, while the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education had 78.4% of class 12 students in the Arts stream. An analysis done by the government of class 10 and 12 board exams in 2023 shows a higher failure rate among State boards compared to Central boards. The State boards see a larger number of students appearing for these exams than the central boards. Of the 1.55 crore students who appeared for class 12 boards across State and central boards, around 27.2 lakh students failed. The State boards, which saw around 1.37 crore students appearing for the class 12 exams, saw around 25 lakh students failing the exam (a failure rate of around 18%). In contrast, the central boards saw around 17.6 lakh students appearing for the exam and around 2.1 lakh students failing it (a failure rate of around 12%). Of the 27.2 lakh students who failed class 12, 53% or around 14.4 lakh students were from the State boards of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and the Central boards, the government’s analysis shows. The largest number of students who failed in class 12 in 2023 was in the UP State board (around 5.92 lakh students), followed by Madhya Pradesh (around 3.35 lakh students), the Central boards (2.13 lakh students), Gujarat (1.62 lakh students), and Maharashtra (1.37 lakh students). In most states, the number of students failing in class 12 in 2023 was more than that in the previous year – in a total of 21 out of 28 state boards and in the central boards more students failed in class 12 in 2023 than in 2022. Meanwhile, in class 10, a total of around 1.85 crore students appeared across State and central boards and of them, around 28 lakh students failed. While 24 lakh students appeared for the exam in the central boards and 1.5 lakh among them failed (failure rate of 6%), a much higher number of 1.61 crore students appeared for the exam in the State boards, and 26.5 lakh of them failed (a failure rate of 16%). With around 28 lakh students failing class 10 and 5.5 lakh students not appearing for the exam, around 33.5 lakh class 10 students don’t reach class 11, pointing to low retention rate and gross enrollment ratio at the higher secondary level, according to sources in the Ministry. Of around 28 lakh students who failed in class 10 in 2023, the highest number was in the Andhra Pradesh State board (2.55 lakh students), followed by Karnataka (1.96 lakh students), the Central boards (1.51 lakh students), Maharashtra (1.06 lakh students), and Haryana (95,560 students). Considering the differences across the school boards in the country, PARAKH, a standard-setting body under the NCERT, has recently submitted to the Ministry of Education an ‘equivalence’ report, which makes recommendations on how equivalence can be achieved across different school boards in the country, in keeping with a mention of it in the National Education Policy, 2020. The recommendations in the report are being discussed with the school boards. The government’s analysis of the 2023 exam results also shows that there was a higher pass percentage among girls in class 12 (51%), compared to boys (49%). More girls were in the arts stream than boys (28.3 lakh girls against 21.12 lakh boys), and the number of girls in the science stream had increased from 23.3 lakh students in 2022 to 25.04 lakh students in 2023.
