544 HSC results withheld in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division; Latur records lowest pass percentage in state

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: As many as 544 students from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division have had their Higher Secondary Certificate results withheld following action against examination malpractices, even as the overall results declared online on Saturday reflected a decline across divisions, with Latur recording the lowest pass percentage in the state.The Latur division registered an overall pass percentage of 84.1%, nearly 4% lower than last year, placing it last among all state divisions. Despite the decline, girls continued to outperform boys with a higher pass rate.Within the Latur division, Dharashiv district topped the results with 92.3%, followed by Nanded at 90.8% and Latur district at 86.7%. Divisional board chairman Sudhakar Telang said the reasons for the decline would be examined closely. "We will analyse the causes and take corrective steps to improve performance next year," he said.In the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division, board chairman Anil Sable said the results of 544 students were withheld due to their alleged involvement in copying cases detected during the Feb-March examinations. Officials attributed the fall in pass percentage partly to a strict anti-copying drive carried out jointly by the education, revenue and police departments.Several malpractice incidents were reported during the examination period. On the first day, a raid by education authorities exposed mass copying at a college centre in Jaitapur in Kannad taluka, following which staff were replaced. A similar incident was later detected at a centre in Chousala in Beed district, where scrutiny of pre-raid footage revealed that students were allegedly allowed to copy despite attempts to portray orderly conduct during inspections.The board clarified that the results of students found involved in such malpractices have been withheld pending further action.To curb copying, the secondary education department in the division deployed 160 vigilance squads and introduced mobile-based video recording after complaints of CCTV cameras being switched off and teachers allegedly dictating answers surfaced in parts of Marathwada.Despite these measures, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division recorded an overall pass percentage of over 87%, a drop of around 4% from last year. District-wise, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar reported 89.5%, Beed 88.9%, Parbhani 85.3%, Jalna 84.4% and Hingoli the lowest at 80.2%. In all, 1,64,898 students passed the HSC examination from the division this year.