More than half of the students failing class 10 and 12 board exams in India in 2023 were majorly from six school boards — Madhya Pradesh (MP), Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Andhra Pradesh, and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — findings from a study of the exam results of secondary and higher secondary education boards carried out by the union ministry of education (MoE) showed.
The analysis conducted by the school education department examined class 10 and 12 results of the total 59 existing school boards across the country, of which three are national-level boards while the remaining are state boards.
The study highlights that the student failure rate for class 10 at the central board is 6% while for state boards is 16%. For class 12, it is 12% at the central board and 18% at state boards.
According to the study, 56% of students remaining unsuccessful in class 10 board exams are majorly from MP, Gujarat, Bihar, UP, and Andhra Pradesh.
Those failing to clear class 12 board exams are also concentrated across five school boards — UP, MP, CBSE, Bihar, and Gujarat.
The MoE undertook this study in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisages standardising various school boards and providing a level playing field to all for national-level competitive entrance exams like JEE, NEET, and CUET, among others.
Of the 59 school boards, 41 are common boards for secondary and higher secondary while nine are standalone higher secondary boards [Andhra Pradesh, Assam (2), Kerala (2), Manipur, Odisha, West Bengal, and Telangana].
Six state boards follow their own syllabus (not NCERT) — Andhra Pradesh (AP), Odisha, Telangana, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.
The study highlighted the variation in the exam duration of these boards ranging between 8 days and 34 days for class 10 (Bihar- 8 days, CBSE- 34 days), and 10 days to 63 days for class 12 (Bihar- 10 days, CBSE- 49 days, Punjab Board- 63 days).
According to the ministry, until last year there were 60 school boards, but with the Karnataka government merging the SSLC Board and PU Board in 2023, the number came down to 59.
“One of the biggest challenges in implementing NEP 2020 is working with 59 different school boards. For states at the bottom of the passing percentage and higher number of students failing in classes 10 and 12, we have referred the analysis to the states to come up with strategies to improve the existing scenario. We hope some of them like Karnataka will want to merge eventually,” said Sanjay Kumar, secretary, school education, MoE.
Since education is a subject in the concurrent list, states are not bound to follow any of the central government’s directives.
Number of students not clearing class 10, 12 remains high
According to the study, around 33.5 lakh class 10 students (5.5 lakh not appearing and 28 lakh failed) are not reaching class 11.
In class 12, around 32.4 lakh students (5.2 lakh not appearing and 27.2 lakh failed) are not completing the final stage of school.
“This is one of the causes for low retention rate and Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at higher secondary level. Open schools are yet to pick up with only 4.2 lakh students enrolled, of whom 2 lakhs passed for class 10 while in case of class 12 only 6.5 lakh enrolled, 6.2 lakh appeared and 3.3 lakh passed (2.9 lakh failed),” the report stated.
Out of the total class 10 pass-out students, 14% are from central boards and 86% from state boards. In the case of class 12, this figure stands at 12% from the central board and 88% from state boards.
“There is a need to try innovative ways to retain students. For example, Andhra Pradesh (with effect from 2023) allowed failed students to repeat for one more year as regular students,” the report said.
Number of girls opting for Science remains low
Results depict that more girls are opting for the Arts/Humanities stream, whereas the number of male students opting for the Science stream is higher.
According to data, 25.04% of girls opted for Science in 2023 while 29.8% of boys enrolled in it. This figure stood at 23.3% for girls in 2022 and 29.1% for boys.
The percentage of girls enrolling for Arts last year was 28.3% while for boys it was 21.12%. In 2022, the figure was 28.2% for girls and 21.8% for boys.
Notably, there are five school boards that are at the bottom with the least number of students enrolling in the Science stream, including Meghalaya (11.38%), Tripura (12.83%), West Bengal (14.61%), Nagaland (15.75%), and Punjab (16.35%), as per the report.
States with the highest number of Science students include Andhra Pradesh (77.97%), Manipur (68.43%), Tamil Nadu (65.94%), Telangana (65.05%), and UP (62.02%).
Disparity in performance of class 10, 12 within same boards
The study observed that there is a huge disparity between the performances of students of class 10 and 12 boards within the same state.
“This is a strong case for converging to single boards and equivalence of curriculum and assessment,” the report stated.
Data showed that the deviation in performance between class 10 and 12 board results widened in Odisha and West Bengal while it remained the same in Kerala. At the same time, in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Manipur, this gap narrowed.
Gap in gender parity in privately-run schools
The analysis also showed that more girls registered and appeared in both secondary and higher secondary exams from government-managed schools, but it is the opposite in privately-run and government-aided schools. But, the number of boys in private schools is significantly higher.
The data points to gender parity in government-run schools, but a large gap in privately-run schools. However, despite the lower numbers, the overall performance of female students in private schools is better than that of the boys. This indicates that parents need to invest more in the girls’ education, who have been a socially disadvantaged group, and that given an opportunity they are faring better than the boys.