New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Class 12 students in several Gulf countries have not fared as well as last year in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams, officials said.
“There is a slight dip in the Gulf students’ performance. While 93.29 percent had passed last year, this year 92.63 percent students were declared successful,” board chairman Ashok Ganguly said after announcing the results at the CBSE headquarters here.
“There was a change in the question pattern this year. The new concept of High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) can be blamed for the dip in performance,” Ganguly told IANS.
He, however, said that HOTS is a good way to judge the skill and efficiency of students, and with time it would benefit students.
A total of 6,989 candidates from 59 schools in Gulf countries had appeared for the Class 12 board examinations in March. Last year, the number was 6,203 from 55 schools.
These students are from several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, and had appeared for the exams in 32 centres.
Ganguly said like in India, girls in the Gulf too have performed better than the boys. The pass percentage of girls is 95.27 percent, while that of boys is 89.8 percent.
“Though the performance of Gulf students has dipped a little, these students have faired better than those in India,” he added.
This year, 549,344 candidates from both India and abroad registered for the CBSE Class 12 exams. The overall pass percentage is 80.91 percent.
A total of 72 students have been given merit certificate in these countries. Merit certificates are awarded to the 0.1 percent of students in the top echelon.