Thiruvananthapuram: After a controversy-ridden and record-setting result for the Kerala Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination, the result for the higher secondary examination in the state announced on Thursday also showed the pass percentage edging up.
Beating last year’s pass percentage of 79.33 in the higher secondary examination, this year’s result has produced a pass percentage of 83.96. A total of 343,459 students had written the state higher secondary examination held in March. Girls achieved a higher pass percentage of 83.34 per cent, higher than the 77.78 per cent achieved by boys.
Among the districts, Kozhikode topped with a pass percentage of 87.05, while Pathanamthitta ended up the lowest performer with a pass percentage of 76.17.
Last month, the SSLC results had attracted widespread criticism, both for the apparently liberal valuation that made almost everyone a winner, and the numerous mistakes that crept into the results, which necessitated multiple corrections of the results.
When first announced, the SSLC examination had a record pass percentage of 97.99. After criticism from various quarters the results were reviewed and re-announced. In the second announcement, the pass percentage set another record, at 98.57.
Most of the criticism was centred around complaints that pupils who pass Class 10 are unable even to write simple sentences without mistakes or solve mathematical problems that should normally be solved by much junior pupils.
The high pass percentage is not a phenomenon restricted to Kerala. In the Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination results announced on Thursday, the pass percentage was at a record 92.9. This was 2.2 per cent higher than that of 2014. In all, 1.07 million students had written the examination.
Five students got 500 marks out of 500, but the first rank has been shared by 41 students with 499 marks each because the five toppers did not have Tamil as their first language. Another 192 students who scored 498 marks shared the second rank and the third rank was shared by 540 students who had 497 marks each.
