95.33% students clear HSC, girls outshine boys again

Cuttack: The annual high school certificate (HSC) examination recorded a pass percentage of 95.33 this year, with girls outperforming boys, a trend seen over the past several years.Conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), the results were announced by school and mass education minister Nityananda Gond on Saturday. Of the 5.36 lakh students, who appeared for the Class X examination, 5.19 lakh cleared it. And for the first time, students will receive bilingual HSC certificates, with the BSE deciding to include Odia. Earlier, the certificates were only in English.The overall pass percentage improved slightly from 94.93% last year, though it remained lower than the 96.07% recorded in 2024. Gond said no malpractice cases were reported this year. “We introduced dynamic QR codes and watermarks in the question papers, making leaks impossible,” he said.Among the 5.19 lakh students who passed the exam, 2,456 students achieved A1 grade, securing more than 90% marks, 15,681 obtained A2 grade (80% to 89%). Similarly, 43,565 students secured B1 (70 to 79%), 86,103 scored B2 grade (60% to 69%). Of the 9,055 schools that presented students for the test, 3,310 institutions scored 100% results.Like last year, Gajapati district recorded the highest pass percentage at 99.31%, while Keonjhar registered the lowest at 95.33%. Girls achieved a pass percentage of 96.37, compared to 94.29% among boys.The minister said three schools located in Kendrapara, Dhenkanal and Puri districts reported zero results this year. However, he noted that only a handful of students appeared from these schools. “In the Kendrapara school, 10 students were enrolled in Class X, but only two appeared and both failed. In the Puri school, three of the four enrolled students appeared and failed. In the Dhenkanal school, only one out of four enrolled students took the examination and failed,” Gond said.At least 8,364 students remained absent from the exam. “We have identified all the students and are trying to motivate them to appear for the supplementary exam or the State Open School Certificate (2nd) exam to secure the matric certificate,” said commissioner-cum-secretary of school and mass education department N Thirumala Naik.The BSE also announced the results of the Madhyama (Sanskrit) and State Open School Certificate (SOSC-1st) examinations, which were conducted simultaneously with the HSC examination. The Madhyama examination recorded a pass percentage of 87.3, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from 85.79% in 2025. In the SOSC examination, 59.82% of the 12,378 students who appeared cleared the test.President of BSE Srikanta Tarai said the HSC supplementary exam will be conducted in the first week of July, and filling up of forms for the purpose would be done online from May 8 to 18, the link of which will be available on BSE website. Results of the supplementary exam will be published in the first week of Aug.CM Mohan Charan Majhi congratulated the students who cleared the HSC, intermediate and State Open School Certificate exams.