NEWS : Navodaya Vidyalayas outdo others in CBSE exams (Roundup)

May 23 (IANS) The autonomous Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) performed better than other schools across India and as usual girls outshone boys in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 examination, results for which were declared Friday. This year, 549,344 candidates appeared for the CBSE Class 12 board exams in India and abroad - an increase of 9.18 percent since last year. The overall pass percentage is 80.91.

CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly said the pass percentage of JNVs is a whopping 92.44 percent followed by 91 percent in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV).

JNVs are autonomous schools under the ministry of human resource development. Ganguly said the continuous good quality teaching in JNVs has helped them overtake KV and occupy number one position in the performance of school category.

While the government schools have registered a pass percentage of 81.96 percent, the independent schools, popularly known as public schools, have registered a success rate of 81.68 percent, as against 82.29 percent last year.

“The mushrooming of such schools was responsible for the dip in performance. We will look into it,” Ganguly said.

In Delhi, where over 100,000 students appeared for the exams, the results in the government schools have gone up from 82.71 percent last year to 85.7 percent this time.

Among others, the central Tibetan schools, under the CBSE, have registered a pass percentage of 85.81 percent as against 86.24 percent in 2007.

Zone wise, Chennai topped the list with the highest pass percentage of 91.39 percent, followed by Ajmer (85.18 percent), Delhi (83.69 percent), Panchkula (80.8 percent), Allahabad (75.23 percent) and Guwahati (63.24 percent).

Ganguly said Allahabad and Panchkula zones faired poorly in the exams as compared to their previous year’s performance.

This year as many as 8,252 students have scored 90 percent or above in the examination in which girls once again outshone boys.

“The number of students, who have scored above 90 percent, is 8,252. Last year 8,111 students had scored such marks,” said Ganguly.

Of the total candidates, who scored 90 percent or above, 4,190 are girls. Of the 384 candidates who scored 95 percent or above, 193 are girls and 191 are boys.

The total pass percentage of girls in CBSE Class 12 exams this year is 85.44, while that of boys is 77.59 percent.

The CBSE chairman said there was a slight dip in the performance of students in the Gulf region. “While 93.29 percent had passed last year, this year 92.63 percent students were declared successful.”

“There was a change in the question pattern this year. The new concept of High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) can be blamed for the dip in performance,” Ganguly told IANS.

HOTS is an analytical problem solving process, geared to assess the students’ absorption of knowledge and its application.

He, however, said that HOTS was a good way to judge the skill and efficiency of students and with time it would benefit students. There were 6,989 candidates from 59 schools in Gulf countries who had appeared for the Class 12 board examinations in March.

The number of students securing a ‘perfect score’ - or 100 out of 100 marks in subjects - has come down by over 50 percent.

Only 753 class 12 students have scored 100 marks in any subjects as compared to 1,506 in 2007.

  Courtesy : Thaindian.com