Image used for representation
| Photo Credit: M. Srinath
Tamil Nadu registered a 95.25% pass percentage among students who appeared for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 exams. This marks a dip from the previous year’s pass rate of 98.48% in the State.
The CBSE Class 12 results were announced on Wednesday (May 13, 2026), with the national pass percentage recorded at 85.2%.
As many as 46,901 boys and 41,245 girls from Tamil Nadu wrote the CBSE Class 12 exams, wherein girls outperformed boys (94%), with a pass rate of 96.68.
The Chennai region stood second in the country – after the Trivandrum region – with 93.84%, which is a decrease from the previous year’s 97.39%.
Besides Tamil Nadu, the Chennai region includes Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The exams were held between February 17 and April 4. Students from as many as 1,123 schools in the State wrote the exams held across 357 centres in Tamil Nadu.
In Tamil Nadu, Kendriya Vidyalayas performed the best among institutions, registering a pass rate of 99.04, while government-aided schools achieved a pass rate of 67.31. Government schools have registered 95.51% and private schools, 95.19%.
Further, 14,229 General Category students secured a pass rate of 97.15 and 7,267 Scheduled Caste (SC) students cleared the exam with 92.15%.
While 512 students under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category achieved a pass rate of 91.92, 61,954 Other Backward Classes (OBC) students recorded 95.23%.
Students, parents and teachers expressed disappointment at the drop in the pass percentage registered.
They attributed this to the on-screen marking (OSM) system that was introduced this year.
N. Vijayan, senior principal of Zion and Alwin Group of schools, said, “A student of a CBSE school, on understanding the concept, conveys the answer in their style without altering the principle of the concept. This is taken into consideration during evaluation in conventional mode. But in OSM, it is not possible. Hence, the student tend to lose marks even though the answer is correct.”
Senior Principal of Prasan Vidya Mandir Lakshmi Prabha said that while some papers such as maths and physics were tough, the decrease in centums and marks was concerning. “While the CBSE took so many steps with Class 10 exams, this (OSM system) should have been kept in mind for Class 12 students. This could have been rolled out in the sampling format,” she said.
Many teachers pointed out that the CBSE should do review the papers, as students are affected by the dip in scores.
Students can access the results through any of the four CBSE websites: www.cbse.gov.in; www.results.nic.in; www.results.digilocker.gov.in; and www.umang.gov.in. The documents can be accessed via Digilocker app.
Published – May 13, 2026 04:15 pm IST
