New Delhi, May 27: The CBSE Class XII results announced today appeared to belie fears that replacing the Class X board examination with internal assessment may affect students’ learning.

Over 82 per cent of the about nine lakh students who took the Class XII board exam in March passed, compared with 80 per cent last year. Girls continued to outshine boys.

This year’s Class XII examinees were the first to have been offered the choice of skipping the Class X boards. Many academics, including former CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, had opposed the move saying promotion through internal assessment might harm the students.

CBSE sources told The Telegraph that this year’s pass rate was the highest in the past five years. The number of students securing 90 per cent and above, or 95 per cent and above, too has increased.

“The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system of internal assessment is a better way of evaluating children’s competence. It improves overall learning: today’s results have proved that,” a senior CBSE official said.

Sangita Bhatia, a school principal, said CCE aims at holistic development by stressing on both scholastic and co-scholastic skills.

“The CCE has been well received by students. I would say that students are learning at their own pace without bothering about board examinations, about passing or failing,” Bhatia said.

The CBSE had introduced the CCE in Class IX and X for students who do not want to take the Class X board exam and trained all the schools on its proper implementation. It was the brainchild of then human resource development minister Kapil Sibal.

Sibal had taken the idea from the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), the guiding document prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for the development of school syllabuses.

Several academics had at the time written to the Prime Minister against the new system.

Despite the good show by the students, former CBSE chairman Ganguly did not appear convinced today.

“On the face of it, if you look at the pass rate, one can say the CCE has not affected the quality of student performance. But the pass rate is not the sole parameter to evaluate performance,” Ganguly said.

He said the performance of average students — such as the percentage of those securing 50 to 70 per cent — should be the criterion to judge the new system’s efficacy.

“The performance of average students has to be analysed. If that has improved from last year, you may say the CCE has delivered,” he said.

CBSE sources said there had not been much improvement in the performance of average students in the 50-70 per cent marks bracket.

A CBSE official said the board had conducted several studies to assess how the CCE had impacted learning. The findings suggest the new system has been doing well, he said.