Centre recommends 7 states to adopt common board after poor exam outcomes

The Ministry of Education has recommended seven states to adopt a common board for classes 10 and 12 after an analysis by the School Education Department flagged that these states accounted for 66 per cent of student failures last year, officials said.

The seven states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Manipur, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal.

There are a total of 66 school examination boards in the country, including three national-level boards and 63 state-level boards (54 regular and 12 open boards),  While the top 33 boards cover 97 per cent of students, the remaining 33 boards cover just 3 per cent of students.

"Common board for class 10 and 12 is the way forward for ease of schooling. Not having a common board leads to poor academic outcomes. We have recommended these states to adopt a common board," School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar said.

A total of 22.17 lakh students failed Class 10, and 20.16 lakh failed Class 12 across the country in 2024.

While the numbers have improved over the decade, officials say they remain a significant barrier to better retention and transition to higher education.

"Role of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in these states became important to engage the unsuccessful students in education. NIOS's present prominence around Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana (where there are least failure rates), needs to be expanded to other states.

"Standardisation of assessment process, curriculums, paper setting, elevation (to the next class), exam span also needs attention of Boards," Kumar said.

The analysis pointed out that open school boards performed poorly, with only 54 per cent of Class 10 and 57 percent of Class 12 students passing.

"Institutions like NIOS must step up efforts to prevent dropouts, supported by the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and increased parental engagement," Kumar said.

A major trend noted is that girls are outperforming boys across most boards, especially in science. More than 28 lakh girls passed in science, overtaking the 27.2 lakh in arts a reversal of earlier trends and a rise from 23.3 lakh in 2022.

The analysis flagged significant differences among students' performance in different mediums of instruction.

Students taking exams in Odia and Malayalam mediums did significantly better than peers writing in Kannada, Telugu or Assamese, highlighting regional disparities. States like Kerala, Odisha and Manipur, which have integrated board systems, recorded pass rates above 97 per cent, with Kerala at 99.96 per cent.

The analysis report also noted strong performances from Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs), where 72 per cent of the students cleared NEET-UG. Students from Kendriya and Navodaya Vidyalayas also fared well in engineering entrance tests.

The NVs are fully residential, co-educational schools providing quality modern education from Class VI to XII to talented children, predominantly from rural areas.