KOLKATA: Some 83.75 per cent students appearing for higher secondary examinations conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) cleared them on Friday, which is 2.5 per cent higher than last year.
Some 8.04 lakh students appeared for the exams out of which 6.63 lakh student students passed the examinations. Out of the passed students, some 2.50 lakh got first division while 41,428 got A+ grade.
While Granthan Sengupta from Jalpaiguri district’s Jalpaiguri Zilla School topped the exam scoring 496 out of 500 (99.2 per cent), Abhradipta Ghosh of Jadavpur Vidyapith topped from Kolkata and stood fifth overall, scoring 486 marks (97.2 per cent).
Purba Midnapore and Kalimpong districts did the best results with over 90 per cent of the candidates passing the examinations. Female students outperformed male students in 18 of the 20 districts of the state. The drop-out rate also reduced to just one per cent from 2.4 per cent last year. For the first time, this year the question papers were in Hindi besides Bengali and English.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, WBCHSE president Mahua Das claimed that the reduced drop-out rates and success of female students were due to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project
‘Kanyashree’.
Congratulating students, Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “Congratulations to all students who excelled and those who passed the Higher Secondary Examination. Best wishes for all your future endeavours. Good
wishes to your teachers and families.” The exams will be held from February 26 to March 13 next year.