Arts, vocational push Goa Class XII pass score to record 92.6%

Panaji: The pass percentage registered at the 2026 Class XII exams of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education rose further to 92.6%, at the results declared on Saturday. In 2024, 85% students had cleared the exams, while, in 2025, the pass percentage stood at 90.6%.

Board chairperson Bhagirath Shetye said that besides a general increase in the competitiveness among students, the higher pass percentage was due to improved performances by students in the arts and the vocational streams. He said the pass percentages in these streams was higher than ever.

Shetye said attitudes are changing towards the arts stream and more students who are high performers are opting for the stream now.

“Also, in Goa, most students make it to the higher secondary school level and are able to complete it. It is seen as a basic qualification in the state that has to be completed for the gateway to higher education,” said the board chairperson.

Of the 17,283 that appeared for the exam this year, 16,067 — 8,529 girls and 7,538 boys — cleared it, continuing with the trend of higher pass percentage for girls at 93.9% as against 91.9% for boys.

The board chairperson said that the quality of performance was also improving among students with the highest number of 8,280 students scoring in the 60 to 80% range, while normally more students were in the 46% to 59% range during the previous years.

Another 888 divyang students appeared for the exam, of which 850 cleared it, giving a pass percentage in the category of 95.7%.

The highest number of students appeared for and cleared Class XII in the science stream at 5,097 with a pass percentage of 93.9%, followed by 4,936 students in the commerce stream with a pass percentage of 92.9%.

Shetye said that the performance of students was slightly down in the science stream in physics and mathematics this year.

The arts stream was cleared by 3,790 students with a pass percentage of 92.2% and vocational stream by 2,432 students giving a pass percentage of 92.3%.

In 2025, 91% students cleared arts stream and vocational had a much lower pass percentage of 82.7%.

Shetye said that school managements are also going the extra mile in recent years by conducting extra classes for students of Classes X and XII.

He said that the higher pass percentage cannot be attributed to the internal marks component as is usually done by some, as no matter what the score in the internal component students still have to clear the external exam separately to pass the exam.

The highest number of 3,704 students appeared from the Salcete taluka which also recorded a very high pass percentage of 95.1%. This was only slightly short of the best performance by a taluka of 95.9%, which was by Pernem from where the number of students that appeared was much lower at 645.

The lowest number of 151 students appeared from the Sanguem taluka, which recorded a pass percentage of 82.8%. The lowest pass percentage was seen in Dharbandora taluka at 79.6% despite only 186 students appearing from the region.

The subject of history witnessed the highest number of students at 41 with the perfect score of 100 out of 100, followed by 28 students in political science, and 27 in sociology.

The board officials said that the supplementary exam will be tentatively held on April 27 and students in the ‘needs improvement’ category can appear for it to clear their backlog. Also, those students who want to improve their score despite having passed the exam can also appear for the supplementary exam.

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