All 10,79,749 candidates cleared Madhyamik this year.

In a year when the Class X board exam could not be conducted because of the pandemic, the pass percentage saw a jump by 13.66 per cent compared to 2020.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, which announced the results on Tuesday, decided not to detain any candidate this year because the exam could not be held, an official of the board said.

Last year, the exams were held in February (18 to 27), before the pandemic had struck, and 86.34 per cent students had passed the Class X board exams.

The board this year prepared the marksheet giving equal weightage to a candidate’s performance in the Class IX annual exams and internal formative assessments of Class X.

As many as 79 students were declared joint toppers this year, scoring 697 out of 700 based on the evaluation methodology.

While 86.07 per cent students had passed Madhyamik in 2019, the figure was 85.49 per cent in 2018.

An official of the board said since they could not conduct the examination, it was decided that no candidate would be detained. “Overall, 90 per cent of the students have got first division this year,” the official added.

Kalyanmoy Ganguly, the president of the board, said: “If the candidates are not happy with their marks, they will be allowed to write the test, subject to the improvement in the situation.”

The percentage of first division usually hovers around 50 per cent, said an official of the school education department.

Teachers’ associations are wondering if so many students could be accommodated in Class XI this year. Usually around eight lakh students are admitted in Class XI, they said.

“This year, all 10,79,749 have been declared as having passed Madhyamik. There is a deficit of 2,79,749 seats. We wonder whether the government could add so many seats...,” said Saugata Basu, the secretary of the government school teachers’ association.

Since a record number of students have scored first-division marks, teachers are expecting a surge in the demand for studying science in plus-II.

An official of the school education department said they had already created the necessary infrastructure so that the students were not denied seats in Class XI.

Marksheets were made available to the candidates on Tuesday itself. Candidates were not allowed to visit schools. Instead, their parents had to collect the marksheets, admit cards and certificates.

Since the exams could not be conducted, admit cards were not issued earlier.