Yangchen C Rinzin 

A total of 3,692 students who were the first batch of students sponsored through government scholarship to study in private schools appeared Class XII examination in 2020.

Only 2,774 students passed the examinations according to the Pupil Performance Report 2021 compiled by the Bhutan Council for School Examinations and Assessment.

This means a total of 918 students who were the first batch of students to study in Class XI through government’s scholarship failed the examination.

With the highest mean score of 70.74 percent, these students performed the best in Agriculture for Food Security going by the subject-wise performance, followed by media studies.

Going by the report, the worst performed subjects were in English II, Commerce, Economics, and Maths with mean scores ranging between 34 and 45 percent.

A total of 13,701 students from 74 higher secondary schools (53 government and 21 private schools) registered for the 2020 Class XII examination of which a total of 13,560 appeared the examination.

According to the report, the highest enrolment rate of candidates was in Arts stream, followed by Commerce and least in Science.

A total of 385 candidates could not secure the pass mark (40%) in the compulsory subjects compared to 313 candidates in 2019 Class XII examination.  The report stated that a total of 119 students failed in English and 194 in Dzongkha.

The report on the council examinations for various levels is published annually. The report endeavours to provide observations to schools, teachers and relevant agencies on the performance of our students.

Going by the stream, Dagana achieved 100 percent result in Arts, followed by Zhemgang in Commerce.

Haa, Lhuentse, Sarpang, Thimphu, Tashiyangtse, Trongsa, Tsirang, Zhemgang, and Samdrupjongkhar Thromde achieved 100 percent pass result in Science as per the report.

As per the mean score recorded based on the school-wise performance in each subject, private schools performed better.

Ugyen Academy School recorded the highest mean score in five subjects—English I, Physics, Chemistry, Accountancy Old Curriculum, and Environmental Science.

Karma Academy School scored the highest mean score in Biology, English II, Maths, Commerce, and Geography. Druk School recorded the highest mean score in Business Mathematics and Economics.

Desi Higher Secondary School scored the highest mean score in Dzongkha Rigzhung.

The report stated that the pass mark in each subject is 35 percent in Class X. The candidate must obtain a minimum grade of D in SUPW.

The report concluded that if the pass mark was raised to 40 percent, instead of 12,374 students (96.57%) who passed the Class X examination, only 10,988 candidates (85.76%) would have passed.

A total of 12,925 candidates from 130 schools (125 government and 5 private schools) registered and 12,813 appeared in the Class X examination according to the report.

Edited by Jigme Wangchuk