Madurai records 93.6% pass in Class XII board exam, ranks 12

Madurai:

Madurai

district achieved a pass percentage of 93.64% in the Class XII state board examination results declared on Friday, a marginal increase from the 92.46% in the previous year. The district jumped to 12th position state-wide from the 17th rank it secured last year.

Officials from the district education department owed the better performance to the “result analysis” they conducted prior to the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year. District chief education officer (CEO) M K C Subhashini said that through “result analysis”, they were able to identify schools which did not possess impressive pass percentage in Class XII state board examinations in 2018 and concentrate more on them. “We arranged a more personalized coaching for students in those schools and conducted daily unit tests and also conducted special classes. We had our district education officers (DEOs) visiting the schools regularly to see the progress in students,” she stated.

District collector S Natarajan said he was happy with the results especially the increase in the pass percentage of boys from 88.12% last year to 91.65 this year. “What we’re seeing now is a positive trend. We are focussing on maintaining consistency in the performances. We’re striving to reach among the top five ranks next year and we’re working towards that,” he said. However, the pass percentage of girls dipped from 95.44% to 96.45% this year.

Of the 309 schools in the district from which students appeared for the examination, 151 achieved 100% pass percentage. Among these, a majority were private schools while only two of 15 corporation schools and six out of 65 government schools achieved 100% results. While the pass percentage among corporation schools was 96.68%, it was only 85.81% in the government schools.

There were apprehensions among the school administrations, teachers and students regarding the Class XII results this year as there was a general consensus that it was very difficult. School teachers said they were relieved with the pass percentage but claimed that many students weren’t able to secure high marks in subjects like physics, chemistry, zoology and botany unlike previous years. “Apart from this, commerce group students also said that they didn’t secure the expected marks,” Madurai district president of Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary Schools Computer Science Teachers Association B Senthil Kumar said. There was a change in the question pattern – from a total of 1,200 to 600 (200 to 100 every paper) – this year and many questions were framed to test the students’ analytical skills. A good chunk was also from “inside the book”.