West Bengal's larger 90 percent pool gives Higher Secondary students an edge in UG admissions

Time of India

14-05-2025

KOLKATA: At 89.2%, Bengal's pass percentage was higher than the all-India figure of 88.4% in CBSE Class 12 exams, the results for which were declared on Tuesday. Though more boys than girls appeared for the exam from 339 schools in the state, girls were way more successful with a pass percentage of 92.7% against 86.3% for boys.
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With CBSE 12 being last of the three major board exam results to be published, the other two being Higher Secondary and ISC, the race now begins for admissions to popular undergraduate courses in top colleges. HS students, who are in majority in the pool of students with overall scores of 90% and above, seem to hold an edge over students from the other two boards.
Of the 4.7 lakh students who cleared the HS, 7,307 scored above 90%.
In ISC, the number of students with above-90% marks was around 19.3%, CISCE sources said. If the Bengal numbers follow the national average, there could be close to 5,500 stud-ents with more than 90% here since 27,804 students passed the exam from the state.
In CBSE, 14.9 lakh passed the exam nationally, of whom 7.5% secured over 90%. Assuming a similar pattern in Bengal where 39,792 students passed the exam, there could be around 3,000 students with scores of 90% or more.
This could take the total number of above-90% students in Bengal to anything between 15,000 and 16,000.
A total of 44,631 students appeared for the CBSE Class 12 exam from Bengal, of whom 39,792 cleared it. The pass percentage of 89.2% was higher than both the all-India average (88.4%) and that for the Bhubaneswar region (83.6%). Bengal comes under the Bhubaneswar region.
According to principals of many city schools, in CBSE 12, humanities students appeared to have outperformed those from the science stream.
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At Bhavan's GKV, humanities student Aparajita Saha scored 99.4% while at DPS Howrah, Rishika Trivedi, also from humanities, scored 99.2%.
DPS Howrah principal Sunita Arora felt one reason for this could be the excessive focus on preparation for engineering and medical entrance exams by science students. Others pointed out that some science papers, especially physics, were tricky.
Around 50% of the questions in CBSE 12 this year were competency-based and analytical.
In a press note, CBSE said this year's 88.4% pass percentage in Class 12 was better than last year's (87.9%), which showed 'students were well prepared for the competency-based question paper'.
Principals of several city schools also said that the shift from rote learning to competency-based analytical questions had helped students get a good score and, at the same time, given them a better understanding of each subject.
CBSE took the initiative to deviate from rote-learning practices after the Covid disruption and principals expect the practice to continue.
Altogether, 137 candidates from Class 12 at Lakshmipat Singhania Academy passed the examination, with 64 scoring over 90%. In DPS Ruby Park, 894 students appeared for the exam, among whom 273 students scored over 90%. Of the 559 students from South Point who appeared for the exam, 156 secured above 90%.
In Shri Shikshayatan School, 227 students appeared for the exams, and 110 scored above 90%. In Sushila Birla Girls' High School, 138 students appeared for the exam, of whom 70 scored above 90%. In Birla High School, 100 students appeared for the exam, of whom 14 scored above 90%.
Bhavan's GKV's principal Arun Dasgupta said, 'The overall result was better than last year. First of all, the entire student community has come out of the Covid situation. The changes introduced, and the changing question pattern, helped students score better. Moreover, the changed pattern will help them in their future as well.'