Calcutta, May 19: New ICSE and ISC schools are not lagging Calcutta’s top-ranking Christian missionary-run and Anglo-Indian schools.

This year’s board results show that the performance of students in the middle-ranking schools of the city is almost as good as their counterparts in the old, reputable institutions.

This is largely a result of the recent drive launched by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations to increase inspections in its affiliated institutions to ensure better monitoring of teaching and infrastructure facilities.

“We are maintaining regular vigil on the schools, particularly in the newly set up institutions, to ensure that they provide proper facilities in respect of engaging adequate number of qualified teaching staff,” said Gerry Arathoon, additional secretary and officiating chief executive of the council.

The council’s move to intensify the vigil on schools followed a recent attempt by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to formulate a legislation to monitor the functioning of ICSE-ISC and CBSE schools.

The reputable Anglo-Indian and Christian missionary schools set up decades ago have always performed well. Their students have scored high marks this year, too, and no student from these institutions has failed.

Over the past decade, the number of ICSE-ISC schools has risen from 69 to nearly 400 in Calcutta and in the districts.

“Ours is a new school and the current year’s batch was the second we had sent to appear for the ICSE and ISC examinations. Except two, who have scored 50 per cent, the remaining examinees have scored more than 70 per cent in most of the subjects,” said Sujoy Biswas, the principal of Ram Mohan Mission School in Calcutta.

Other schools, which are not run by Anglo-Indians or Christian missionaries, have also fared well.

Calcutta notched up a pass percentage of 97.75 in ICSE and 96.56 in ISC this time. In keeping with the national trend, the success rate and overall performance have improved this year in the city.

In tune with another national trend, girls have done better than boys both in Calcutta and Bengal.