Around 90.07% of students cleared the Plus 1 HSE examinations as results were announced in Tamil Nadu on Monday, June 27. This year's pass percentage is the lowest compared to the past four years. Parents and teachers attribute the dip in pass percentage to the pandemic and a crunch in time to finish the syllabus.
While the pass percentage was 91.3% in 2018, it rose to 95% in 2019, 96.4% in 2020. In 2021, it was 100% as every student was passed due to the COVID-19 situation.
"There was so much ambiguity around whether the exams would be conducted or not. Many students thought exams would not be held and did not prepare at all. The main cause for the fall in pass percentage is the pandemic," said Tamil Nadu Private Schools Parents Association President S Killivalavan.
The absentee rate also rose from 1.29% in 2020 to 4.67% this year. As many as 41,376 students did not attend the examination. Totally, 8.43 lakh students appeared for the exam, of which 7.59 lakh passed. As usual, girls outperformed boys by 10.13%.
"Class XI students did not write exams for Class IX and X (Board exam) due to COVID-19. This is the first time in three years that they had to write an exam — the primary reason for the dip in pass percentage. Also, schools opened five months late, compared to usual academic schedules. Teachers had only three months to complete the whole syllabus," said P Patrick Raymond, General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Graduate Teachers Federation.
Meanwhile course-wise, the highest pass percentage has been recorded in Science (93.73%), followed by Commerce (85.73%), then Arts (72.49%) and vocational (76.15%). The highest number of centum were recorded in computer applications (2,186), followed by accounts (2,163) and Computer Science (873). Geography, History and Home Science recorded only one centum each.
District-wise, Permabalur recorded the highest pass percentage at 96.56%. This is followed by Virudhunagar at 95.44% and Madurai at 95.25%. Notably, Perambalur recorded the highest pass percentage for Class XII this year and second-highest for Class X.
Overall, 13,679 students scored between 551-600 marks, 36,145 students scored between 501-550 marks and 59,325 students scored between 451-500 marks.
