Cuttack, May 6: Unaided schools have performed well in comparison with the government and aided schools in the matriculation examinations, the results of which were announced here on Wednesday.
The overall pass percentage of unaided schools in 86.28 per cent, which is nearly six per cent more than the overall pass percentage in the state that stands at 80.93 per cent.
As many as 80.28 per cent students in government schools have cleared the matriculation examination while the overall pass percentage in aided schools stands at 82.47. In block grant schools, 80.62 students have passed.
Balasore has registered the highest pass percentage of 91.58 students among the 30 districts in the state while Bargarh with a lowest of 72.15 per cent. The statistics were calculated based on more than 10,000 students appearing in the districts.
Deograh has registered a highest pass percentage of 93.70 per cent considering the number of students appeared in the exam, which is 10,000 and Malkangiri has registered a lowest of 60 per cent.
Odisha Secondary School Teachers' Association (OSSTA) has expressed satisfaction over the performance of unaided schools, which fared well despite lacking basic facilities.
At present, there are nearly 3,336 government schools, 656 aided, 2,209 block grant and over 500 unaided schools in the state. "Keeping in view the performance of the unaided schools, we will now press for grant-in-aid from the government for upgrade of facilities at these schools," said Prakash Mohanty, secretary of OSSTA. On the other hand, the school and mass education department seemed to be complacent with the overall pass percentage that stood at 80.93 per cent.
The overall pass percentage has registered an increase of nearly four per cent as 76.03 per cent regular students had cleared the examination last year. "The overall performance of students in comparison with previous years has registered a rise. Adequate steps will be taken to improve the results in government schools," said Debi Prasad Mishra, school and mass education minister.
Board of Secondary Education (BSE) officials said it was for the first time that a record number of nearly 80.93 students have cleared the high school certificate (HSC) examination. Out of the total 5,49,374 regular students, 4,51,959 students have cleared the examination with a pass percentage of nearly 82.56 per cent. Officials said 1,473 students have scored A1 grade (540 to 600 marks), 16,021 students have got A2 grade (480 to 539 marks), 46,688 students got B1 (420 to 479 marks) and 83,194 students have got B2 grade (360 to 419).
A little over 1.10 lakh students secured C grade (300 to 359 marks) and 1.21 lakh students got D (240 to 299 marks) and 72, 954 were E (198 to 239).
"We have set up a helpline number 0671-2412059 or 241260 and a separate toll free number - 180039456722 - where students can get any information regarding the result, said D.P Nanda, BSE president.
Nanda said all the OMR sheets would shortly be uploaded on the website so that the students could download their copies for verification. "The students instead of physically coming to BSE or zonal offices can now apply for readdition and rechecking of marks online from May 12," Nanda said.
