Over 65 lakh students failed the class 10 and 12 board exams last year, with failure rates notably higher in state boards compared to national boards, according to Ministry of Education (MoE) sources.

An analysis of results from 59 school boards, including 56 state and three national boards, showed that more girls appeared for class 12 exams in government-managed schools, while the trend was reversed in private and government-aided schools.

Despite this, girls outperformed boys significantly across all types of school management, with a pass percentage over six points higher than boys.

“Around 33.5 lakh class 10 students did not advance to the next grade—5.5 lakh did not appear, and 28 lakh failed—contributing to low retention and Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the higher secondary level,” a source revealed.

Similarly, 32.4 lakh class 12 students did not complete the grade—5.2 lakh did not appear, and 27.2 lakh failed.

Failure rates in national boards were 6% for class 10 and 12% for class 12, while state boards had much higher rates at 16% and 18%, respectively. The performance of open schools was also poor in both classes.

Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of failures in class 10, followed by Bihar and UP, while in class 12, UP had the highest failures, followed by Madhya Pradesh.

“Student performance in 2023 declined compared to the previous year, possibly due to a larger syllabus,” the source noted.

Despite a higher number of girls appearing for the exams from government schools, they still outperformed boys across the board. In class 12, 87.5% of girls in private schools passed compared to 75.6% of boys, with nearly nine lakh boys failing compared to four lakh girls.

The overall results, reported by 59 boards covering diverse curricula, indicated a troubling trend with a high number of failures contributing to lower retention rates.

In class 10, of the approximately 18.5 million students who appeared, 84.9% passed, leaving 33.5 lakh students unable to advance to class 11. In class 12, 82.5% of the 15.5 million students passed, but 32.4 lakh students did not complete their education.

No significant performance differences were observed between students taking exams in different languages, though regional and board type disparities were evident, underscoring the need for standardization.

Science remains the most popular stream, chosen by 43% of students, predominantly boys, while arts were chosen by 39%, with a higher representation of girls. Girls also had a slightly higher pass percentage in science and a significantly higher pass percentage in arts.

Source: PTI

Also read: Delhi: Over 98% pass class 10 and 12 exams in NDMC and Navyug schools