New paper pattern lifted CBSE XII scores: Principals

MUMBAI: The Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) results announced on Monday saw Maharashtra, which is part of the Pune region from this year, record a success rate of 90.4%, higher than the national pass percentage of 88.8%.
The Pune region, with a success rate of 90.2%, was ranked 10th among 16 in the country. Other than Maharashtra, the region includes Goa, Daman, Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The Thiruvananthapuram region with a success rate of 97.7% fared the best.
This year, the board could not conduct examinations in 12 subjects for students across the country, and an additional 11 from north-eastern Delhi due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown. Students were marked on the basis of average scores of the papers they had appeared for. The board, hence, did not announce a merit list this year.
Most Mumbai students, across all three streams, missed only one of their five or six papers.
“Most students have been awarded marks in line with what they would have scored in case they wrote the paper. Students from the science stream whose computer science paper was cancelled, though, were slightly disadvantaged as it is a scoring subject. Even those who don’t score very well in other subjects can better their performance with computer science,” said Mamta Bhattacharya, principal, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Powai. At the school, students bettered their performance, with 37 out of 121 scoring more than 90%.
Similarly, in keeping with the national trend, most city schools saw a higher number of students score above 90% and 95%.
“Since most papers were over for students in Maharashtra, the formula did not impact their scores. But the students did seem to benefit from the new paper pattern, which meant an increase in the number of MCQs and objective type questions. The format also gave the students more time to write their long answers,” said Anjali Bowen, principal, Ryan International School, Kandivli. At the school, 33 students scored above 90% and 13 got a perfect 100 in various subjects.
Principals said the new paper pattern could have been tricky for high scorers.
“Attempting a one mark question has helped the average students score better. But the format could also be a setback for high scorers who might directly lose one mark if they don’t get the answer right,” said J Mohanty, principal, Delhi Public School, Nerul. At the school, 71% students scored above 90%.
This year, CBSE reduced the mandatory descriptive type questions the students had to appear for and included up to 25% objective type questions.
Despite raining high scores, principals said the board has not being lenient in evaluation. “A lot of students expected higher scores in some subjects but that did not happen. The school’s top score was down 97.4% last year to 96.6% this year,” said Kalpana Dwivedi, principal, St Joseph High School, Panvel.
At the school, 35 of a batch of 107 students scored 90%, just like last year.
Like all years, girls outperformed boys in the state, region and the country.