At 98.07%, record students pass in Class

Schools in the national capital registered a record overall pass percentage of 98.07%, 12.41 percentage points higher than the previous year’s 85.86%, in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams results announced on Wednesday.

The CBSE used an alternative method of assessment this year after the government cancelled the Class 10 exams on April 15. Last year, the CBSE conducted board exams for most subjects but the pandemic halted the process with students not being able to write tests for some subjects.

The improvement in overall performance of Delhi schools was led by the government-run institutions where the pass percentage went up from 82.61% in 2020 to 97.52% this year. The government schools recorded a pass percentage of 68.9% in 2017-18 and 71.6% in 2018-19.

Similarly, the overall pass percentage of private schools also improved from last year’s 91.29% to 99.54% in Delhi East region. In Delhi West region, it shot up to 99.61% from last year’s 89.09%.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia congratulated the students: “I am proud to state that 97.52% of Delhi government school students have passed and 186 government school children have scored more than 95%. It is the result of the governance model of @ArvindKejriwal ji that Delhi government schools are setting an example in the whole country.”

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also congratulated the students. “Many congratulations to the children, their parents and team education,” he tweeted.

According to the data provided by the Delhi government, of the 1,008 schools from which Class 10 students were assessed, 750 achieved 100% results.

The average Quality Index (QI), which reflects the performance of each student, in government schools has also increased to 278.3 this year from 265.31 in 2020.

Several government school principals said the alternative evaluation criteria helped their students.

Under the alternate assessment criteria, students have been evaluated on the basis of their performances in exams conducted at the school level, including unit tests, mid-term/half-yearly exams, and the pre-boards, following the cancellation of their final examinations in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The CBSE had also asked schools to keep their overall passing percentage in line with their best performance in Class 10 final exams in the last three years. The board has allowed schools to moderate marks within a range of plus or minus 2 obtained by the school in the subject in the reference year.

“Schools picked their best performance in the last three years and marked students on its basis. It has majorly benefitted average students. Overall, this was the best board could have come up with in the pandemic year,” said Awadesh Kumar Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed School in Rohini, which has recorded 100% result this year.

Explaining the major possible reason behind the improvement in overall pass percentage, Ashok Pandey, director of Ahlcon Schools that also registered 100% pass percentage, said, “The results were prepared on the basis of internal assessments that covered short units (syllabus), and were of short duration. In fact, the major portion of these tests or exams were multiple choice type or short answer type questions. Naturally, children tend to do well in such exams. The problem begins when exams happen for longer hours with long answer type questions. This only highlights the importance of continuous school-based assessment.”

The majority of private schools said their result was in accordance with their previous year performances. Meenakshi Khushwaha, principal of Birla Vidya Niketan in Pushp Vihar, said, “Our results are almost the same as normal boards . We followed all the norms. There is no difference as such and we are satisfied with it.”

Students also expressed relief after the end of an exhaustive pandemic-hit academic year. Hiten Goyal, 15, a student of RPVV Surajmal Vihar, has scored 478 out of 500 marks in Class 10. His father, an electrician, suffered financial losses due to the lockdown. “It’s a challenging year both academically and financially. There was a time when my father did not get work due to the pandemic. But my family did not let it affect my studies. I am happy with the results and satisfied that this long wait is finally over,” he said.