Bengal: Higher Secondary (XII) results out, highest pass percentage in 10 years

Mita Mukherjee

The pass percentage in 2025 Higher Secondary (Class XII board) exams, the results of which were declared on Wednesday stands at 90.79 percent, the highest since 2015, Chairanjib Bhattacharjee, the president of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Examination, said. The pass percentage stood at 90 percent in 2024.

However, less than two percent of students obtained 90 to 100 percent marks and placed in the top O- Grade this year, which is also higher than previous years, the council president said.

“Performance of students is the best this year since 2015 excluding 2020 and 2022 when academic activities and examination system were affected due to Covid- 19. The overall performance is very good this year which shows the changes we have brought into our curriculum are bearing fruits. This apart we had been constantly offering training to our teachers and this has improved the teaching learning system in the schools. This also contributed to the gradual improvement in students’ performance,” Bhattacharjee told EducationWorld after announcing the results.

This year out of the 4,73,919 total examinees only 3,477 have scored the highest grade between 90 and 100 percent. As many as 72 students shared the top ten positions.

Ayan Pal, a student of C M S High School of Purba Burdwan district stood first scoring 99.4 phttps://www.cbse.gov.in/ercent (497 out of total 500 marks).

Heads of several schools said, though the overall pass percentage has increased marginally the number of high scorers (90 to 100) percent marks) is quite low compared with schools which follow the Delhi-based ISC and CBSE curriculum.

Many teachers of Higher Secondary schools said the council needs to think about making the assessment system more liberal so that students passing the Bengal board exams are on par with those passing the ISC, CBSE (Class XII) exams.

However, an official of the council said more students can score high marks not just if the assessment system is made liberal .

“We need to upgrade the teaching skills of teachers and ensure that the schools have adequate facilities. It is more important to ensure that students learn the subjects well,” the official said.

This year the overall pass percentage in science is 99.46 percent the highest among three streams. While in commerce the success rate is 97.52 percent while in humanities the pass percentage stands at 88.25.