CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu recorded a pass percentage of 95.25% in the Class 12 CBSE examinations, which is nearly 3.5 percentage points lower than last year’s 98.74%. The overall national pass percentage also declined by 3.19 percentage points. This year, the national pass percentage stood at 85.2%, compared to 88.39% last year.

According to the Central Board of Secondary Education, 88,146 students from 1,123 schools in Tamil Nadu appeared for the examination, of whom 83,962 passed.

Among them, 44,086 out of 46,901 boys cleared the examination, while 39,876 out of 41,245 girls passed. The pass percentage of girls stood at 96.68%, which was 2.68 percentage points higher than that of boys at 94%.

Among different categories of schools, government schools recorded a pass of 95.51%, private schools 95.19%, Kendriya Vidyalayas 99.04%. and government-aided schools 67.31%.

However, the number of students from government and government-aided schools who appeared for the exams was relatively low (586 students), compared to 3,014 students who appeared from Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Category-wise, general category students recorded a pass percentage of 97.15%, followed by OBC students at 95.23%, SC students at 92.15%, and ST students at 91.92%.

Region-wise, Chennai region, which includes parts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, recorded a pass percentage of 93.84%, second only to the Trivandrum region, which topped with 95.62%.

Teachers attributed the fall in Class 12 pass percentage to the introduction of On-Screen Marking (OSM), a digital evaluation system implemented by CBSE this year. It is said to have ensured stricter, uniform and error-free evaluation.