CBSE Class 12 Pass Percentage Drops to 85.20%, Girls Outperform Boys Again

New Delhi, May 2926 : The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday declared the Class 12 board examination results for the 2026 academic session, recording an overall pass percentage of 85.20 per cent. The results reflected a noticeable decline in overall performance compared to last year, drawing attention to the sharp fall in the success rate of students across the country.

According to CBSE data, the pass percentage dropped by 3.19 percentage points from last year’s 88.39 per cent. The decline has sparked discussions among education experts, teachers and parents over possible reasons behind the fall in performance despite continued reforms in examination and evaluation methods.

This year, a total of 17,80,365 students registered for the CBSE Class 12 examinations. Out of them, 17,68,968 students appeared for the exams, while 15,07,109 students successfully cleared the examinations.

One of the major highlights of the 2026 board examinations was the large-scale implementation of a fully digital evaluation system by CBSE. For the first time, the Board introduced a complete “On-Screen Marking” process for the assessment of answer sheets.

According to CBSE officials, nearly 98.66 lakh answer sheets were evaluated digitally, making it one of the largest digital evaluation exercises undertaken by the Board so far. The move was aimed at improving transparency, accuracy and efficiency in the marking process.

Girls once again outperformed boys in the Class 12 results. The pass percentage among girl students stood at 88.86 per cent, while boys recorded a pass percentage of 82.13 per cent. Girls maintained a lead of 6.73 percentage points over boys, continuing the trend seen in previous years.

Region-wise performance also revealed impressive results from the Delhi region, where students performed significantly above the national average. The Delhi West region recorded a pass percentage of 92.34 per cent, while Delhi East achieved 91.73 per cent.

According to CBSE figures, a total of 3,01,977 students from the Delhi region had registered for the Class 12 examinations this year. Of them, 3,00,732 students appeared, and 2,76,583 students successfully passed the examinations.

The CBSE Class 12 board examinations for 2026 were conducted between February 17 and April 10 across the country. The Board made arrangements at 19,967 schools and 7,573 examination centres for the smooth conduct of the exams. In comparison, the previous year had 19,299 schools and 7,330 examination centres.

The Board’s transition towards digital evaluation is being viewed as a major step in modernising India’s school examination system. However, the drop in overall pass percentage is likely to trigger further review of academic patterns, examination standards and student preparedness in the coming months.