ROURKELA: Government schools in Rourkela continued their lacklustre performance in the High School Certificate (HSC) examination, results of which were published earlier this month.
Official sources said not a single student of any government school in the steel city has secured A1 rank in the exams conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha. This comes at a time when results of government schools across the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district have significantly improved in 2026.
On the other hand, 14 students of six private schools in Rourkela have got A1 positions. These students include four from Chinmaya Vidyalaya at Sector 7 and three each from Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir at Sector 6 and MS Siksha Nivas at Sector 17.
In 2025, a student each from the government-run Acharya Harihar Nodal High School and NAC (ST) High School in Sector 16 had got A1 positions. Similarly, a student each from the Government High School at Uditnagar and Tarkera High School had secured A1 ranks in 2024.
District education officer (DEO) MD Behera said compared to 2025, overall performance of Sundargarh has improved this year. The district jumped four places from 15 to 11 in Odisha in 2026. A1 ranks also increased to 56 from 34. In 2026, the district also saw a significant increase in number of students securing A2 ranks at 326. The number of schools scoring 100 per cent results also rose to 187.
The DEO said the PM Shri Government COE School in Kutra block has done exceptionally well with 25 students securing A1 ranks out of Sundargarh’s total 56. “We look forward to replicate the model of Kutra school in other government schools of Sundargarh for improved results,” he added.
Meanwhile, the district education office has started reviewing the performance of government schools in the HSC exams. Additional DEO (academic and scheme) Sadanand Pradhan said reports have been sought from different government schools in Rourkela for review and preparation of future plan for improvement.
He said prima facie, it appears that the authorities of government schools in Rourkela did not give equal weightage to all subjects, resulting in the poor performance. Prior to publication of results, several prominent government schools of Rourkela had assured of producing improved results, but they failed in effective subject-wise analysis, he said.
