The performance of government schools in Delhi improved by around 11 percentage points, from 71.6% in 2019 to 82.61% this year, in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams results announced on Wednesday. In contrast, the overall pass percentage of private schools dropped to 90.19% from 93.18% in 2019.
The overall pass percentage of Delhi region also increased to 85.86% this year from last year’s 80.97%.
But despite the improvement, government schools could not get past private schools in overall results unlike in the CBSE class 12 exams, where government schools fared better.
The pass percentage of Delhi government schools has risen to 82.61% this year– highest since CBSE reintroduced the compulsory board exams in class 10 in 2018. The government schools had recorded a pass percentage of 68.9% in 2017-18 and 71.6% in 2018-19.
Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia congratulated the students. “Our children have made us proud again! After record breaking results of Class 12, the upward graph of Delhi Education continues in Class 10. Overjoyed that this year, the result improved to 82.61% from 71.58% last year Congratulations to #TeamEducation. You have really raised the bar!” he tweeted.
In gender-wise performance in government schools, 78.64% boys passed as compared to 86.76% girls. The gap is marginally less in private schools where 86.20% boys passed this year as compared to 92.49% girls.
According to the data provided by the Delhi government, out of 1,005 schools from which students took the class 10 exams, 147 achieved 100% results. The number of 100% achiever schools was 60 last year. Similarly, the number of schools achieving 90% and above increased to 474 this year from 226 in 2019.
Around 786 government school students scored 90% and above in aggregate. Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas (RPVV)– the model schools of the Delhi government — recorded a pass percentage of 99.33%.
The average Quality Index (QI), which reflects the performance of each student, has also increased to 265.31 this year from 259.60 in 2019 in government schools.
Government school principals said they had focussed on improving class 10 results since the beginning of the academic session.
Mohammad Shariq, principal of a School of Excellence (SoE) in Kalkaji, said, “The school had extended extra help to students. We held special counselling sessions for parents of students who were slow learners and helped their children study at home. We gave extra classes to board students in winter vacations as well,” he said. The school recorded 100% results with the highest percentage being 95.6%.
The principals said though they were yet to catch up with private schools in class 10, they were happy with the improvement.
AK Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed school in Rohini, said, “The Delhi government had hired resource teachers and experts for board students this year. It helped a lot in preparing students for the board exams,” he said.
Private schools principals cited reasons such as change in exam and the evaluation pattern as a possible reason behind the drop in their pass percentage.
Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini, said the possible reason behind the improvement in pass percentage of government schools is the change in evaluation policy adopted by the CBSE in northeast Delhi, where the number of government schools are more than private schools.
“The number of government schools in northeast Delhi is more than private schools. Many students in northeast Delhi appeared in only one or two subjects. They managed to get more marks under the new evaluation policy,” Arora said.
The CBSE had cancelled exams of four subjects in northeast Delhi due to the communal riots in February. Though the board had announced in April that it would conduct exams in the region again in July, it could not be done due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
These students were evaluated on the basis of a revised assessment scheme formulated by the board wherein average marks secured in best performing subjects are awarded in subjects that could not take place.
Manju Sethi, principal of Bluebells School International in Kailash Colony, said the change in exam pattern might have led to the slight drop in pass percentage of private schools. The CBSE has 25% objective-type questions in all the subjects.
“It is difficult to come up with a concrete reason for the drop in pass percentage of private schools. Students might have lost marks in objective-type questions. There is a possibility of a complete deduction of marks in multiple-choice questions. Also, we are really disappointed with fewer students getting full marks in scoring subjects like Mathematics,” she said.