SOURCE ; NEW18
Last Updated:May 17, 2025, 09:48 IST
From 2016 to 2025, young women have consistently outperformed their male peers, with boys managing a higher pass percentage in only one instance: the Class 10 results in 2017
In Class 12, the average pass percentage this year for girls was 91.64 per cent, compared to 85.70 per cent for boys. (Representative Image/PTI)
There are many areas where women still have to fight hard to make space for themselves — but CBSE Class 10 and 12 exam results are not among them. For a decade, from 2016 to 2025, young women have consistently outperformed their male peers, with boys managing a higher pass percentage in only one instance: the Class 10 results in 2017.
In the 2025 results, announced this week, only one state in each class had boys outperforming girls in terms of pass percentage.
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In Class 12, the average pass percentage this year for girls was 91.64 per cent, compared to 85.70 per cent for boys.
Pass percentage refers to the proportion of students who successfully pass an exam out of the total number of students who appeared for it. So, for every 100 girls appearing, about 92 cleared the exams in Class 12, while out of every 100 boys, just 86 passed.
When it comes to Class 10, the gap was not as wide as for Class 12, but girls were still ahead with a pass percentage of 95 per cent compared to 92.63 per cent for boys.
An analysis of the latest and past results from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — a national-level board of education under the Union Ministry of Education — by News18 shows that not just nationally, but girls outperform boys in the majority of states.
In the 2025 Class 12 results, Mizoram was the only state where the pass percentage of boys (88.16 per cent) was higher than that of girls (86.86 per cent). In the Class 10 results, it was only Jharkhand where the pass percentage of boys (92.20 per cent) was higher than that of girls (92.09 per cent) by 0.11 percentage points.
In terms of overall results, the last time boys were ahead was in 2017, when the average pass percentage for girls in Class 10 was 92.50 per cent, while for boys it was 93.40 per cent.
For Class 12, since 2016, there has not been a single year when the pass percentage of boys was higher.
In 2025, the gap between the pass percentages of the two genders was about six percentage points for Class 12 and 2.4 percentage points for Class 10.
In Class 12, a total of 16.92 lakh students appeared for the exam in 2025, and 88.39 per cent — 14.96 lakh — passed. Last year, the overall pass percentage was 87.98 per cent, when out of the 16.21 lakh students who appeared, 14.26 lakh passed.
In Class 10, this year 23.71 lakh students appeared for the exam, and 93.66 per cent — 22.21 lakh — passed. Last year, out of the 22.38 lakh students, 20.95 lakh (93.60 per cent) cleared the exams.
It is also worth mentioning that in 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, exams for both classes were cancelled, and results were based on internal and alternative assessment methods. As a result, the pass percentage was exceptionally high.
As shown in the graph, the lowest ever pass percentage for Class 10 for both genders was recorded in 2018. In the last three years, there has been a consistent rise in the pass percentage of girls. The pass percentage for boys this year was lower than last year’s.
Also, for Class 10, the performance margins were tighter, but girls have maintained a clear lead every year. On the other hand, for Class 12, the gender gap has remained consistent and wider over the years. Girls outscored boys by a margin of ten percentage points in 2016.
While much work is still needed in the area of female education in India, more girls succeeding academically can lead to greater female representation in higher education, professional fields, and leadership roles.
- First Published:
May 17, 2025, 09:48 IST
