Why CBSE Class 12 scores dropped in 2026 despite digital evaluation push

New Delhi: India’s national school examination board has attributed a fall in Class 12 pass rates to changes in the assessment system introduced this year, following the release of the 2026 results on Wednesday.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recorded an overall pass percentage of 85.20 per cent, down 3.19 percentage points from last year’s 88.39 per cent.

Of the 1.78 million pupils who registered for the examinations, more than 1.76 million sat the papers, with just over 1.5 million passing.

School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar said the decline reflected revisions to the marking and assessment framework rather than a deterioration in student performance.

“There is some difference in the percentage of marks this time, but that is quite natural because this time the scheme for assessment has changed,” Kumar said after the results were announced. He urged pupils disappointed with their grades not to lose confidence.

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The Class 12 examinations were held between 17 February and 10 April, with results declared on 13 May.

This year also marked the first full-scale implementation of On-Screen Marking (OSM) for Class 12 papers. According to CBSE, nearly 99 million answer scripts were assessed digitally in the board’s largest-ever online evaluation exercise.

The board said the system reduced manual intervention and minimised errors in totalling, posting and uploading marks. It added that digital evaluation improved secrecy, transparency and efficiency by allowing remote marking without the physical transfer of answer booklets, in line with reforms proposed under the National Education Policy.

Girls continued to outperform boys in the examinations, recording a pass percentage of 88.86 per cent compared with 82.13 per cent among boys — a gap of 6.73 percentage points. Transgender candidates achieved a 100 per cent pass rate.

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Regionally, Thiruvananthapuram emerged as the best-performing zone with a pass percentage of 95.62 per cent. Chennai followed at 93.84 per cent, ahead of Bengaluru at 93.19 per cent. Vijayawada and Delhi West completed the top five-performing regions.

At the other end of the scale, Prayagraj recorded the lowest pass percentage at 72.43 per cent, followed by Patna at 74.45 per cent.

CBSE also reported growth in the scale of the examinations this year, with the number of participating schools rising from 19,299 in 2025 to 19,967 in 2026. Examination centres increased from 7,330 to 7,573 nationwide.