Karnataka has witnessed a 14.06% increase in the results of the Senior School Leaving Certificate Exams (SSLC) this year as compared to the previous year. The pass percentage stands at a high 94.1% for Exams-1 of the 2026 academic year.

Speaking at the release of results on Thursday, Karnataka’s education minister Madhu Bangarappa said that this is a historic result of its kind with such high pass percentage.

As many as 7.70 lakh students (freshers) appeared for the state board grade 10 exams this year of which 7.24 lakh students passed. This is the first of three exams which students can try at.

This year not only has the pass percentage increased but also the quality of results has improved according to the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB). Officials said that 66.5% of students have secured a score of more than 60% marks in the exams.

It may be recollected that Karnataka government announced that the percentage required to pass exams will be reduced from 35% to 33% this academic year after several stakeholders said that Karnataka students faced a higher struggle compared to their counterparts in other states where exams were lenient. Ironically, the pass percentages of CBSE and ICSE which are deemed tougher remained higher in comparison to Karnataka’s state board results.

The number of schools securing a 100% pass percentage also went up considerably while no government school reported zero pass percentage.

The year was also marred with another controversy with Karnataka’s education minister Madhu Bangarappa announcing after the completion of third language exams that this year, students will be given grades instead of marks for third language to oppose Hindi imposition. However, following the High Court’s intervention, the decision was reversed. This year 98.55 percent of students passed the third language exams.

This year also saw a significant improvement in results of government school students. A student, Prarthana Nagappa Biradar Patil from Chikkodi district’s Government High School, Katageri is among the seven students who have secured a cent percent result.

Efforts

Bangarappa said that the percentage of students appearing for exams also went up by two percent with the collective efforts of department officials and parents. “In an unfortunate turn of events in Shivamogga, a student lost his father one day before exams commenced. The DDPI visited the student’s residence, motivated him to go ahead and write exams and also made pickup and drop arrangements for him,” he said.

Bangarappa said that the pass percentage among girl students is higher than boys but in comparison to the average of three exams from last year, boys reported a 17% increase in pass percentage.

Also read: Karnataka: Better prep, preparatory exams & extra classes – What helped boost SSLC pass percentage?