Karnataka Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti on Wednesday, October 29, wrote to Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa, urging him to bring back the minimum pass marks to 35 for school students.
Bangarappa had said that students who scored 33 marks would be considered as passed. “This is not the right move. It shows the quality of teaching and quality of learning,” Horatti said.
Horatti calls decision 'Unfortunate'
Terming Bangarappa’s decision ‘’unfortunate’’, Horatti said in the world of competition, it is important for any student to face exams. Though scoring marks is one of the main purpose of exams, Horatti said this will also help a student to improve his or her focus, courage, memory power, learning capacity and other comprehensive development and thus help to bring out a student’s talent. This will help them for their future.
“In this regard, 35 marks has been fixed since long and this has been a scientific yardstick. It is not correct to reduce it to 33 marks’’ he said.
The Karnataka Government has introduced a major revision to the state's examination passing criteria. The minimum marks required to pass the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC/Class 10) examinations have been reduced from 35 percent to 33 percent, while the passing percentage for the II Pre-University Course (PUC/Class 12) has been lowered from 35 percent to 30 percent.
This change takes effect immediately and applies to regular, repeat, and private students appearing for the 2025-26 academic year examinations.
