2023 Exam Analysis: State Boards' Failure Rates Exceed Central Boards; Science Stream Dominates in Key State

State Boards Struggle with Higher Failure Rates in 2023 Exams, While One State Sees 80% in Science Stream

The Central Board of Secondary Education is making substantial efforts to raise educational standards, while the government is emphasizing skill-based education and new laws to strengthen the educational system. However, state boards are facing issues, with recent Class 10 and 12 results indicating a significant dip in student performance. This emphasizes the need for state boards to take more effective action to address these concerns and enhance student results.

According to a government analysis of the 2023 Class 10 and 12 board exams, state boards had a greater failure rate than central boards, because more pupils were enrolled in state boards than in central boards. Out of 1.55 crore students who took the Class 12 board examinations in 2023, around 27.2 lakh failed. The Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education had the highest percentage of Class 12 science students (78%), while the Meghalaya Board had the lowest (11.4%). The Meghalaya Board had 81.1% of its pupils in the Arts stream, while the Tripura Board had 84.6% and the West Bengal Council had 78.4%.

State boards accounted for around 25 lakh failures, with an 18% failure rate. In comparison, Central Boards had a failure rate of roughly 12%, with approximately 2.1 lakh failures out of 17.6 lakh students. Notably, 53% of the 27.2 lakh students who failed came from state boards in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, along with the Central boards. In 2023, the UP State Board reported the greatest number of Class 12 fails, with about 5.92 lakh students, followed by Madhya Pradesh with around 3.35 lakh students, the Central Boards with 2.13 lakh students, Gujarat with 1.62 lakh students, and Maharashtra with 1.37 lakh.

Across most states, Class 12 student failure rates in 2023 exceeded those in the previous year, with 21 out of 28 State and Central boards reporting an increase in failures compared to 2022. In 2023, around 1.85 crore students sat Class 10 exams from state and national boards, with approximately 28 lakh failing. Among these, 24 lakh students appeared for the Central boards, with a failure rate of 6%, and 1.61 crore students took the exams under State boards, with a higher failure rate of 16%.

Additionally, approximately 5.5 lakh students did not present for the exam. As a result, around 33.5 lakh pupils failed or did not sit for the exams, showing a low retention rate and enrollment ratio at the higher secondary level, according to Ministry officials. The biggest number of pupils that failed Class 10 in 2023 came from the Andhra Pradesh State Board, with 2.55 lakh. This was followed by Karnataka (1.96 lakh students), the Central Boards (1.51 lakh students), Maharashtra (1.06 lakh students), and Haryana (95,560 students).

Given the differences amongst school boards across the country, PARAKH, a standard-setting agency under the NCERT, recently submitted an 'equivalence' report to the Ministry of Education, which offers proposals for achieving consistency among school boards, as described in the National Education Policy for 2020. The recommendations are currently being discussed with the school boards. According to the government's review of the 2023 exam results, girls passed Class 12 at a higher rate (51% vs. 49% for boys). In the Arts stream, there were more girls than boys, with 28.3 lakh girls and 21.12 lakh boys. Furthermore, the number of girls pursuing Science climbed from 23.3 lakh in 2022 to 25.04 lakh in 2023. These findings highlight the issues that various educational boards face, and they may spark conversations about appropriate changes and support mechanisms.

Editor's Note:

The latest government research of the 2023 Class 10 and 12 board exams reveals significant disparities in failure rates between State and Central boards. The study finds that State boards, which serve a bigger student population, had greater failure rates than their Central equivalents. Furthermore, the data identifies a noteworthy tendency in one state, where nearly 80% of Class 12 pupils chose the science stream. 

Skoobuzz hopes that the state government will take the necessary steps to reform the education system.