. Mumbai
The new internal marking system has not really helped the Mumbai divisional board as the HSC results, declared on Saturday, indicate. While the state’s performance on an average was 87.39 per cent, the city’s passing percentage was 85.33 per cent, the second lowest in the state, above Nagpur’s 81.12 per cent.
Although board officials and experts have attributed the state’s better performance to the new internal marking scheme, the same has been the cause of skewed results. “Colleges in the interior regions of the state might have misused the system,” alleges the principal of a Vile Parle college. “They might have been generous in giving away the internal marks, leading to the rise in their passing percentage.”
The divisional board secretary, Basanti Roy, however, rubbishes this claim. “Our colleges have followed the internal marking system judiciously. The rise in percentage has been steady and our percentages have gone up by two or three per cent, like it does every year.” However, another board official does not refrain from saying that Mumbai colleges have been a little too ‘honest’ in marking the students.
Mumbai’s overall performance, including repeaters, went up only marginally by 3.57 per cent compared to last year, while for the state as a whole the rise was a big 13.09 per cent.
In the overall scheme of things, girls have again performed better than boys in the city with 89.63 per cent, while the passing percentage of boys is 81.60 per cent. The state topper from Latur, Kalyani Joshi, scored 99 per cent.
Second chance
From this year, the state board has introduced a new scheme for students who have scored lesser percentage: A chance to improve their scores in an exam in October. It will be applicable to students who appeared for and cleared all exams.
