CBSE, ISE surge ahead as Maharashtra board students sulk

While Raahil Shah and Tanvi Kulkarni, both students of Kendriya Vidyalaya at IIT-Bombay and Lilavatibai Podar School in Santa Cruz, scored an astonishing 98.66% in their ISE Class XII examinations, their HSC counterparts in the city have scored much lower in comparison.

While the pass percentage for CBSE Class XII in Maharashtra is a phenomenal 91.32%, the state’s pass percentage for HSC has fallen by 6.56% from last year.  The pass percentage for the ISC exam in Maharashtra has also risen by 2.60% from last year.

“Quality is a huge problem in HSC colleges. Recently, the government has also added many colleges attached to schools, which might have affected quality. It is observed that in junior colleges affiliated to degree colleges, the percentage of passing is above 85% because of the quality of teachers in the degree college,” said T Shivare, principal, KPB Hinduja College.

Experts add that the disparity is also partly due to the fact that CBSE and ISC schools usually cater to middle-class children from an urban or semi-urban background where facilities are better, whereas the HSC Board caters to students even from rural areas.

However, one of the biggest influencing factors is thought to be that CBSE and ISC have changed their teaching and assessment patterns to adopt a more lenient approach to exams. “The correction method is much more lenient in these exams since they have a lot of internal assessments. The HSC board is far stricter in comparison. While our state board schools have slowly started to follow new assessment methods like continuous compulsory evaluation, colleges are still not following that system,” said Kiran Mangaonkar, principal, Mithibai College.

Undoubtedly, 100% scores in Maths and Sciences are rare in HSC exams, and language scores seldom cross 80%. On the other hand, in CBSE exams, several students have crossed 95% in subjects such as English this year. An HSC moderator revealed that if a Mumbai student scores over 80% in an HSC language paper, the paper is checked repeatedly in order to lower the marks.