Explained: Why did 0.05% students fail SSC, Class X?

As of now, the final results have 758 students being declared as unsuccessful and, more importantly, nine schools in the state including two in the Pune division have posted zero percent results, which means not a single student has passed in these schools.

Surprisingly, nine schools in the state had zero percent results, of which two were from Pune Division while four were from Nagpur, two from Mumbai and one from Nashik Division.

On Friday, as Dinkar Patil, chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), announced the results of Class X, Secondary School Certificate (SSC), it created history of sorts as the pass percentage, 99.95, was the highest recorded in the state so far.

However, it also came as a surprise to many as it was expected that all students would be promoted to the next class, Class 11, since assessments were taking place at the school level. With school teachers marking students on internal assessments like school exams or homework and assignments, it was expected that no school will fail a student as it affects the overall school ranking as well.

Also in Explained | Explained: What is the controversy over naming a garden in Mumbai after Tipu Sultan?

But 758 students were declared as unsuccessful and headed for re-exams. Even more surprisingly, nine schools in the state, including two in Pune Division, had zero per cent results, which means not a single student in these schools passed Class 10.

Story continues below this ad

What was the assessment formula for Class X?

Students have been assessed out of maximum 100 marks for each subject. According to the evaluation pattern, the final results are based on subject-wise marks scored by a candidate in internal written evaluation conducted during the year (30 marks), homework / oral exam / practical / internal assignments as per board’s policy (20 marks) and final results of Class 9 (50 marks).

Why did 0.5 per cent students fail?

While earlier it was expected that no registered student would fail since schools are tabulating results at their level, of the 15,75,806 fresh candidates who had registered for exams, schools sent assessment reports for only 15,75,752. Of these, 15,74,994 students passed.

Harishchandra Gaikwad, president, Pune district Headmasters Association, explained the numbers. “In many cases, schools have not been able to contact the student for the entire year. Students may have migrated to other places with parents in search of employment. Forget about taking school exams, many schools do not have a single home assignment paper to show. So how can they give any marks for school assessment… which is why those students may have failed. However, since Friday, I received a couple of calls from principals saying they did enter the student’s passing data but the final result shows that one or two odd students have failed in their school. Actually, there might be mistakes in data entry since schools were doing it for the first time, some may have forgotten to click the ‘confirm’ button to finalise data,” he said.

Also in Explained | The Economically Weaker Sections reservation being implemented in Andhra

Shockingly, nine schools in the state had zero per cent results, of which two were from Pune Division while four were from Nagpur, two from Mumbai and one from Nashik Division. Both board officials and teachers put it down to technical or data entry errors, as it was unlikely that not a single student in the school took an exam or completed an assignment.

Story continues below this ad

Dinkar Patil, chairman of MSBSHSE, said, “Sometimes, there are errors in entering or capturing data, the school code may not have matched or was unavailable. We are in the process of analysing why their results are nil,” he said.