– Reshma Ravishanker

Karnataka has reported an unusual 30 percent drop in pass percentage as per the ‘unaltered’ Senior School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) class 10 state board exams results this year. The government, however, opted to dole out higher grace marks to students, hence pushing the pass percentage to 73.4 percent.

According to officials of the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB), as per the original standards of the conduct of the exam, this year saw a mere 54 percent pass percentage as against 84 percent the previous academic year.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru on Thursday, N Manjushree, chairperson, KSEAB attributed the startling drop in pass percentage to a stringent monitoring against malpractices during examinations this year.

“For the first time, a new system of webcasting through CCTV’s was introduced in all test centres. Control rooms were set up in all districts for monitoring the live feed. This has been a path breaking innovation and has restored exam integrity and inculcated a habit of writing exams without resorting to unfair practices. This step has been welcomed by all stakeholders.

“However, the pass percentage has declined by 30 percent over last year. Hence the government has decided to enhance the “normalization” in the interest of students since the webcasting was a new intervention,” she said.

The KSEAB has decided to reduce the qualifying marks for attracting the grace from the existing 35 percent to 25 percent and grace marks has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent in all subjects as one time measure for all three SSLC exams of 2024.

“From next year the teachers and students will be better prepared for the new system and enhanced normalisation will not be necessary. As a remedial measure, education department will take up curative teaching in the next one month for all students who haven’t done well in exam-1 or who want to improve their marks so that they are better prepared for exams 2 and 3,” she added, assuring students that they had two more attempts to improve their score.

Other highlights:

This year, the student of government-run Morarji Desai Residential School Ankita Basappa Konnuru is the only student to secure a cent percent score with 625/625 marks.

Among the districts, Udupi has topped the list with the highest pass percentage of 94 percent as against its position 14 last year on the same list. Meanwhile, Chitradurga, which had the highest pass percentage last year has dropped to position 21.