A few Kolkata schools buck national trend – Times of India

KOLKATA: Examinees from some prominent CBSE schools of the city performed very well in the Class X board exam, with many more of them scoring 95%-plus than last year, bucking the national trend that saw a dip in the high scores.

Overall, examinees from Bengal also registered a significantly higher success rate (95.2%) than the national average of 91.5%. In fact, it could be argued that it was the stellar performance of Kolkata students that propped up the Bhubaneswar region’s success rate to a credible 93.2%. Yet again, girls — with a success rate of 96.3% — outperformed boys (94.5%).
In four city schools affiliated to the CBSE board — DPS Ruby Park, Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Sushila Birla Girls School and Birla Bharati — 25% students secured 95%-plus aggregate, up from 20% who had secured similar marks last year. While 206 of 812 students who took the exam from these schools got 95%-plus marks, it was 155 out of 772 who performed similarly last year.
Birla High School principal Loveleen Saigal, too, confirmed more students had scored high marks than last year. South Point appeared to be the only notable exception, with 181 students in the 95%-plus bracket against 223 last year.
Nationally, 41,804 out of 18.7 lakh students (2.2% of those who took the exam this year) scored 95%-plus marks; last year, it was 2.4%.
Teachers said examinees had secured very high marks marks in English and mathematics. This was in sharp contrast to the ICSE results, where the English marks were disappointing.
Though the pass percentage of students who appeared for ICSE from Bengal was higher than CBSE’s, at 99%, Madhyamik results, which were declared on Wednesday, registered a pass percentage of only 86.3%, even though it was the highest ever in the state Class X examination’s history. However, the number of students that appeared at Madhyamik from the state (10 lakh) was way higher than either ICSE’s (37,000-odd) or CBSE’s (31,000-odd).
Unlike ICSE, where exams in some subjects could not be held because of the lockdown, both CBSE Class X and Madhyamik examinations had been completed when the pandemic forced the shutdown.
Apala Datta, principal of Birla Bharati School, attributed the improved results to tele-couselling by the mathematics head teacher to drive away phobia about the subject among a section of students, as well as psychological counselling. DPS Ruby Park principal Joyoti Chaudhuri said the introduction of 20% objective-based questions and 10% based on competency also helped improve scores, as students found them interesting.
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