65 lakh students to fail class 10, 12 exams in 2023; higher failure rate in state boards: Education Ministry

According to officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE), more than 65 lakh students across the country failed their final exams in classes 10 and 12 last year. The failure rate in government exams is higher than in national exams.

An analysis of grade 10 and 12 examination results from 59 school boards, including 56 state boards and three national boards, revealed that more girls participated in grade 12 examinations in government-run schools, but the opposite was true for private and government-aided schools. However, in school management, it was they who outperformed their male counterparts by a large margin.

Overall, the difference in pass rates at schools with different boards is also in favor of girls, namely more than six percent.

“Around 33.5 lakh students of class 10 did not make it to the next class. While 5.5 lakh candidates did not appear, 28 lakh failed. This is one of the reasons for low retention rate and Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) at higher secondary level,” a senior MoE official said.

Similarly, around 32.4 lakh students of class 12 failed to secure the mark. While 5.2 lakh did not appear, 27.2 lakh failed.

In grade 10, the percentage of students who failed national boards was six percent, while that of state boards was much higher, namely 16 percent. In grade 12, the percentage of students who failed national boards is 12 percent, while that of state boards is 18 percent.

Ministry officials noted that the open school’s performance in both grades was poor.

The highest number of students who failed in class 10th was in Madhya Pradesh board followed by Bihar and UP. While in class 12th the highest number of students who failed was reported in Uttar Pradesh followed by Madhya Pradesh.

“The overall performance of students in 2023 has declined compared to the previous year. This could be due to a larger syllabus for examinations,” the official said.

More girls sat for the final exams of grades 10 and 12 in government schools than boys.

“This could indicate a gender disparity in parents’ spending on education,” the official said.

Despite this, girls were the most successful in all management classes: in grade 12, 87.5 percent of girls in private schools passed the exam, compared to 75.6 percent of boys. That’s just under 2,000 boys who failed the exam, compared to 400,000 girls.

A total of 59 examination boards, including three national boards and 56 state boards, reported their results. The examinations covered a wide range of curricula, with some boards following non-NCERT syllabi. Despite the large number of students, the pass percentages indicate a worrying trend.

In class 10, 84.9 percent of the approximately 18.5 million students who sat for the final examinations passed. However, approximately 33.5 lakh students do not proceed to class 11 due to failing or non-appearance, contributing to lower retention rates.

In Class 12, about 82.5 per cent of the 15.5 million students who appeared passed. The pass percentage was highest among students in Nepali and Manipuri languages ​​(85.3 pc each). A significant number of students — 32.4 lakh — did not complete their Class 12 education, failed or did not appear for the examinations.

A total of over 55 lakh candidates have failed to clear the board examinations of classes 10 and 12 in 2023.

No significant difference in performance was observed between students taking the exams in different languages ​​for both grades 10 and 12. However, there are clear differences between regions and types of examination boards, underscoring the need for standardisation.

Notable performance was seen among students appearing for examinations in regional languages ​​such as Marathi (87.4%), Punjabi (87.4%) and Malayalam (87.4%) in class 10. In terms of media, apart from Hindi and English, Bengali and Marathi are the medial languages ​​with over 10 lakh students and their pass percentage is higher than English and Hindi.

Science is the most popular field, with 43 percent of students, chosen mainly by boys, followed by art chosen by 39 percent of students, with a higher representation of girls. Furthermore, the pass rate of girls is also marginally higher than boys in science and significantly in art.