For the first time in five years, more than 75 per cent students of class X cleared the exams conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC), results of which were declared online on Wednesday after a delay of two months caused by the lockdown.

As per figures provided by JAC, as many as 3,85,144 students from across the state appeared for the exams conducted from February 11 to February 8, and 2,88,928 of them passed. As many as 1,48,051, about 40 per cent of the examinees, secured more than 60 per cent marks, JAC officials said.

Contrary to the trend seen in CBSE and ICSE, boys outperformed girls in the JAC exams this year. While 75.88 per cent boys passed in the exams, the pass percentage for girls was 74.25. As many as 1,80,532 boys and 2,04,612 girls appeared for class X board exams this year under JAC.

“I congratulate all the students who have passed. I would also like to tell the students who did not perform well to not get disheartened. This is not the end of your academic journey, it is only the beginning,” said JAC chairperson Arvind Prasad Singh.

The results were declared online on Wednesday afternoon at jac.jharkhand.gov.in. Unlike past years, no grand ceremony was held at JAC building in view of social distancing norms in place, officials said. Students can check their results

State education minister Jagannath Mahto took to Twitter to congratulate the students. “I am glad to announce that results for class X exams conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) have been declared. My best wishes to all the students,” he said.

The official website of JAC was down for at least an hour soon after the declaration of results, and students found it difficult to see their results, sources. However, the website was accessible by evening.

JAC is likely to declare the results of class XII exams by the end of this month, officials said.

The evaluation of papers was done in 67 centres of 19 districts in Jharkhand, said Singh. More than 9,500 evaluators are engaged in the task, he added.

The lockdown, Singh said, delayed the evaluation of answer sheets by two months, but the evaluators did a commendable job of completing the process on time. The evaluation of answer sheets for class X and class XII began on May 28.

The answer sheets of class X and class XII exams were evaluated under CCTV surveillance in special evaluation centres. All social distancing norms were followed at the evaluation centres, Singh

Class XII results, he said, will be declared in the last week of July if everything goes according to plan. Last year, JAC declared its class X results on May 16 and class XII results on May 21.