CHENNAI: The results of the Class XI public examinations, the first board exams held for the grade in Tamil Nadu amid a series of changes in a revamp of the school education system, were out on Wednesday.
The 8.47 lakh students who appeared for the
exam
recorded a pass percentage of 91.3.
For candidates who were anxiously awaiting the results, a tense wait finally made way for relief and even celebrations when the results were announced.
With the cumulative mark brought down to 600 for both Class XI and XII for the current batch, the marks they scored were vital for admission to undergraduate college courses.
School education secretary Pradeep Yadav explained the significance of the results. "The performance of students in the Class XI boards will be important as a consolidated mark sheet for their higher secondary years will be considered [by colleges] during admissions," he said.
Statewide,
Erode
, with 97.28%, recorded the highest pass percentage, Tirupur came in second (96.4%), and Coimbatore was third (96.19%).
The trend of girls outperforming boys continued in the Class XI exam. Girls recorded a pass percentage of 94.6, against 87.4 for boys. More than 29% (the biggest chunk of students) scored in the range of 200-300 marks out of 600, while the smallest section (4.29%) scored more than 500/600.
'Results better than expected, board liberal with marks'The announcement of a board exam at the start of the last academic year took many students and schools by surprise.
The system of carrying over papers as arrears into Class XII added to the pressure for students, who now face a three-tier test over as many successive years in the board exams.
Educationists said the government may have gone easy with evaluation since it was the first time that students had taken a board exam in Class XII. "The idea was great but the implementation has to be better," said K Nanda Kumar, state general secretary, Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association. "There was no blueprint or model paper available and it appeared that the government conducted the exams more to show that it was doing something [to enhance the quality of education]."
"The results have been better than expected," he added. "The government was probably generous with marks." TN introduced public exams for Class XI after the school education department got wind of schools, especially the so-called rank factories in districts like Namakkal and Erode, skipping portions of the Class XI syllabus.
Many of these schools gave priority to the Class XII portions to achieve better results in the Class XII board exams.
The school education department - with state board students initially struggling to clear competitive exams like NEET in the backdrop - stressed on the need to give importance to higher secondary class portions, to equip students to crack competitive exams, and prevent schools from skipping the Class XI portions.
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