(Top): Students of Shri Shikshayatan rejoice after passing their Higher Secondary examinations on Tuesday. (Below): A high five exchanged between successful ICSE examinees at Calcutta Girls’ School on the same day. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal

Higher Secondary 2008 has set twin records — the pass percentage has never been higher and the results have never come sooner.

The pass percentage — 80.38 — is the highest since the Plus II system was introduced 30 years ago. It is up 6.51 per cent compared with last year.

The results were published on the 41st day of the completion of the written tests. Last year, the announcement was made on the 44th day.

Another first: the results were announced on the same day as the ISC and ICSE results.

“We are happy that the pass percentage has gone up,” said Gopa Dutta, the president of the state council of Higher Secondary Education.

Of the 424,651 students who had sat for the exams, 332,364 have passed. Compared with last year, 110,113 more students have made the cut. Around 4.49 per cent of the examinees have scored A and A+ grades (69 per cent or more) — better than the past two years.

Like previous years, the pass percentage in Calcutta (90.80) is higher than the state average. Among the districts, Hooghly (87.37) and Howrah (87.10) are close behind.

“It’s good that the gap between the success rate in Calcutta and the districts is narrowing,” said Dutta.

The council earned the loudest cheers for announcing the results in such a short period. “The students will benefit from the early publication of the results,” said school education minister Partha Dey. “Earlier, meritorious students from the state suffered while seeking admission in institutes outside the state or abroad because of the delay in announcing the results.”

An education department official said chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had taken an initiative three years ago “to streamline the examination system, including declaration of results” from the school to the university level.

Council officials attributed this year’s high success rate to the overall better performance in English, the only subject that every Higher Secondary student has to study.

“Several surveys have established a direct link between failure and poor performance in English. This holds true for national and international exams as well,” said council secretary Debashis Sarkar.

An analysis of previous years’ HS results has shown that around 90 per cent of the unsuccessful students had failed in English. “Keeping that in mind, we have tried to make the English syllabus, and the question and evaluation pattern more scientific. The result is showing,” said an official.