CBSE Class 12th result 2026: Why students scored lower this year as pass percentage falls by 3.19%

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the Class XII board examination results on May 13, 2026, with the overall pass percentage falling to 85.20%, down from 88.39% last year. More than 15 lakh students cleared the examination, but the 3.19 percentage point decline has sparked discussion among principals, teachers and education experts over tougher papers and the first large-scale use of On-Screen Marking (OSM).This year marked CBSE’s shift towards digital evaluation for Class XII answer sheets. Alongside the transition, several schools reported that Physics and Mathematics papers were more difficult and application-based than in previous years. Experts also pointed to CBSE’s increasing focus on competency-based questions under the National Education Policy framework.Overall pass percentage records declineCBSE data showed that 17,80,365 students registered for the examinations, while 17,68,968 appeared. Out of them, 15,07,109 students passed.CBSE Class XII result comparisonGirls continued to outperform boys. Girls recorded a pass percentage of 88.86%, while boys secured 82.13%. Transgender candidates achieved a pass percentage of 100%.Principals say tougher papers played a major roleA government school principal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drop in results could not be linked only to online checking.“Result going down by 3% is not primarily because of online checking. It could be because of the difficulty level. I was expecting the result would be down by 10-15%. Now this is not the case,” the principal said.When asked why he had expected a sharper fall, the principal smiled and said he was still trying to understand the pattern himself.“I will let you know later as I am also trying to figure it out,” he said with a laugh.The principal added that concerns over the difficulty level of Physics and Mathematics papers had surfaced across schools during the examination period itself. According to him, many students found portions of the papers lengthy and more application-based than expected, especially average and borderline candidates.Mathematics teachers flag weaker scores and tougher papersNeera Sharma, Mathematics PGT at SKV Khajoori Khas, Delhi, said the Mathematics result had been weaker than previous years.“Overall Maths result is not good. There were less distinctions, less Quality Index and no moderation from the CBSE level. In my 23 years journey as a Maths teacher, not even a single student of mine has scored above 90 marks this year,” Sharma said.Calling the outcome “very disheartening”, she said students and teachers had worked throughout the year but the final scores did not reflect that effort.“The result has not been good at all. Mathematics teachers and students work hard throughout the year, and still our subject’s result has suffered the most,” she said.Sharma added that many questions in the Mathematics paper went beyond what students usually prepare from NCERT textbooks.“Several students found the paper lengthy and application-based. Even good students have scored below expectations,” she added.Educationists point to impact of On-Screen MarkingMr. Praneet Mungali, educationist and Trustee at the Sanskriti Group of Schools, Pune, said the adoption of OSM had introduced greater rigour into the evaluation process.“The OSM adoption has introduced more rigour in the process of evaluation. This has reduced human error and is probably the reason for the change in the pass ratio,” he said.However, he added that it would take a few years of data to determine the exact impact of digital evaluation on overall performance trends.“However, to come up with a definitive conclusion we would need to study the trend for at least the next few years and compare them with the average pass ratios for a few years before the introduction of the OSM. This will allow us to make a firm conclusion about the real pattern,” he said.Mungali also described the shift towards digital evaluation as “the right way forward”.Experts flag impact on borderline studentsPrashant Jain, CEO of Oswaal Books, said the decline was linked to a combination of factors.“First, this is the first year of On-Screen Marking for Class 12, and a transition of that scale always shows up in the numbers. Second, Physics and certain sets of Mathematics were genuinely tougher this year. Third, we're still seeing the tail of COVID-era learning loss,” Jain said.According to him, OSM changed the evaluation environment even though the marking scheme remained the same.“On paper, an examiner can read faint pencil work or dense diagrams naturally. On a screen, they can't. Light handwriting, cramped answers and faint diagrams are harder to read digitally,” he said.Jain also said automated totalling under digital evaluation removed the small addition errors and informal moderation that earlier sometimes benefited students in the borderline range.Tougher Physics and Mathematics papers emerge as concernJain said school principals across regions had reported that the Physics paper was more difficult than previous years, while certain Mathematics sets also posed challenges to students.“When two high-weightage Science-stream papers get tougher in the same year, you see it directly in the overall pass percentage because Science students are a large share of the cohort,” he said.He also linked the shift to CBSE’s gradual move towards competency-based assessment patterns.“CBSE is progressively moving toward competency-based questions under NEP — case studies, application, reasoning rather than direct recall,” Jain said.Students raise concerns over evaluation processFollowing the declaration of results, several students and social media users raised concerns regarding unexpectedly low marks.Anurag Tyagi, in a post on X, said “thousands of CBSE Class 12 students are feeling devastated after unexpected low marks” and called for greater transparency in rechecking.Another user, identified as @Adhem47073828 on X, alleged that deserving students had received lower marks than expected and demanded manual re-evaluation.CBSE has not linked the decline in pass percentage directly to OSM. The board has maintained that digital evaluation was introduced to improve transparency, reduce human error and streamline the assessment process.What changes for the next batchEducation experts said schools may now need to prepare students differently for board examinations under digital evaluation systems. Clear handwriting, structured answers, properly labelled diagrams and step-wise presentation are expected to gain greater importance under OSM-based assessment.Jain said the overall pass percentage could stabilise in the coming years once schools, students and evaluators become fully accustomed to the new system.