Matching with the results of previous years, a record number of five lakh students of Odisha on Wednesday became matriculates as they came out successful in different streams of the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha in February-March this year.
Among the 5.90 lakh students, who appeared at the examinations in both Regular and Ex-Regular streams, 5.03 lakh students passed in different grades registering a pass percentage of 85.28. The pass percentage last year was 83.72 while 80.93 per cent of students had passed in 2015 and 80.97 per cent in 2014.
While the pass percentage this year has been better than all previous years, there has been a fall in the number of meritorious students. Against some 35 per cent students passing in the last year's examination securing first class (above 60 per cent marks), only 20.35 per cent students scored marks above 60 per cent this year.
Among the Regular students, only 2,417 students got ‘A1’ grade (above 90 per cent marks). But none from the Ex-Regular students got marks above 90 per cent. Besides, 23,472 regular students and 15 ex-regular students got ‘A2’ grade securing marks above 80 per cent. Two more students writing the examination in correspondence course also passed getting ‘A2’ grade.
Among the 5,02,999 students who passed, 2,47,948 were boys and the rest were girls. While the results of five students were withheld, as many as 1,176 students were booked for malpractice during the examination.