The unaided private school students in Odisha outperformed the students in the Government and aided schools in this year’s High School Certificate (HSC) (Matriculation) examinations, the results of which were published here on Wednesday. A total of 82.56 per cent of students successfully cleared the annual HSC examinations in Odisha this year. While the overall pass percentage in the State was 80.93, the result of unaided schools was 87.74 per cent. On the other hand, only 81.89 per cent students of Government schools cleared the exams. The results of other aided and block grant schools were not encouraging either.
Despite bringing in massive reforms in HSC Examinations of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), including introduction of multiple choice answers in half of the questions, around 20 per cent students failed this year. Out of 5,73,783 students, whose results were published on the day, a whopping 1,09,388 were declared fail for securing less than 30 per cent of marks. The examinations were held in February-March this year.
Declaring the results at the BSE office here, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Mishra, however, expressed happiness saying the overall pass percentage has improved this year compared to last year’s. While 76.03 per cent students had cleared the examinations last year during which the new format was introduced for the first time, about 80.93 per cent students passed in various grades this year.
In the Regular stream, as many as 1,473 students passed in A1 grade securing marks above 90 per cent, 16,021 students passed in A2 grade securing marks between 80 and 89 per cent, 46,688 students passed in B1 grade (70-79 per cent) and 83,194 students passed in B2 securing marks between 60 and 69 per cent.
At least 5, 87, 419 students had enrolled themselves to appear the examinations in six streams but only 5, 76, 491 students appeared the examinations. Among them, results of 255 students were kept withheld and a record 2,453 students were booked for ‘malpractice.’ Interestingly, students of tribal-dominated districts like Nuapada, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Boudh, Koraput, Naurangpur, Rayagada and Sundargarh performed well in this year’s examination, with each registering pass percentage better than the State average.