CBSE class 12: Over 80 per cent more students than last year score above 95 per cent

New Delhi: Over 80 per cent more students compared to last year have scored above 95 per cent marks in class 12 while the number of candidates scoring between 90 to 95 per cent has gone down by over five per cent, according to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The results announced by the board on Friday showed that the number of candidates scoring above 95 per cent has increased from 38,686 last year to 70,004 this time.

However, the number of students scoring between 90-95 per cent has gone down from 1,57,934 last year to 1,50,152 this time. A total of 13.69 lakh regular candidates had registered for the class 12 exam this year.

The board has announced the results this year on basis of an alternate assessment policy after the exams were completely cancelled in view of the aggressive second wave of COVID-19.

Last year, the exams had to be partially cancelled after a nationwide lockdown was announced to contain the spread of COVID-19. The results were declared on basis of the scores in the subjects for which exams were already conducted.

However, the number of students scoring above 95 pc marks in 2020 was more than double the 2019 figure of 17,693. Similarly, the number of students who scored above 90 per cent had also increased from about 94,000 in 2019 to almost 1.6 lakh in 2020.

This year, the CBSE has achieved the highest ever pass percentage of 99.37 with girls outshining boys by a slender margin of 0.54 pc.

According to the policy decided by a 13-member panel of the board, the theory paper evaluation formula is 30 per cent weightage to Class 10 marks, another 30 per cent to Class 11 marks and 40 per cent weightage to marks obtained in Class 12 unit test, mid-term, pre-board exams.

The board had clarified that since the components, including marks of class 11 and class 12, will be awarded at the school level, they will strictly not be comparable across schools due to the variations in the quality of question papers, the evaluation standard and processes, the mode of conduct of exams, among others.

"Therefore, to ensure standardisation, each school will have to internally moderate the marks to account for the school level variations by using a reliable reference standard.

"The subject-wise marks assessed by the school for 2020-2021 should be within a range of plus/minus five marks obtained by the students in the school in the subject in the reference year," the board's policy had said.