Number of students with scores above 90 per cent has declined in Madhyamik this year

The number of students with scores above 90 per cent has declined across all subjects except life science in Madhyamik this year.

The results of the Class X board exams, which were declared on Friday, show the maximum dip has been in mathematics — 12,951 students scored above 90 in 2023 against 39,386 last year.

In percentage terms, it is down from 3.58 per cent ofthe students who took the test last year to 1.89 per cent this year.

The number of examinees this year is less by over 4 lakh.

This year, 6,82,321 candidates appeared for exams, conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. In 2022, the count stood at 10,98,775.

This year 13.67 per cent of the examinees scored first division marks (60 per cent in aggregate), compared with 14 last year.

The percentage of successful candidates has also gone down marginally — from 86.60 last year to 86.15.

Throughout Classes VIII and IX, this batch of students had to attend online classes and many of them did not have access to technology. Many of the students were unable to access education the way they should have at their age.

“This batch of students did not have enough in-person teaching because of the pandemic. In subjects like maths and science, it is difficult to substitute classroom teaching with online learning at the high school level. We will have to make a comparative study to understand what led to the reduced number of high scorers,” said Ramanuj Ganguly, president of the state secondary education board.

Unlike last year, the Madhyamik questions this year were based on the entire syllabus.

The syllabus was truncated last year keeping in mind the pandemic-induced disruption to learning.

Throughout the pandemic, students from poor homes had to cope with severe resource constraints.

“This year, the percentage of students who scored first division in our school came down to 30 per cent. Usually, it is much more. The learning gaps from the past two years have not been bridged and it has weakened the base of many students,” said Soumen Pal, headmaster of Udaypur Haradayal Nag Adarsha Vidyalaya, near Belghoria, on the northern fringes of the city.