Girls outshone boys in the High School Certificate (HCS) examination results declared by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) Odisha on Tuesday.
Announcing the results at the BSE Headquarters in Cuttack, School and Mass Education Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra said the pass percentage was 70.78 per cent, which was over five per cent lower than last year's pass percentage of 76.23 per cent.
Out of the total 5,87,720 students who took the exam 3,97,125 (1,91,655 boys and 2,05,470 girls) cleared it. The exam was held at 2,953 centres between February 22 and March 8.
The Regular and Ex-Regular pass percentage was 72.35 and 37.43 respectively.
While 82 schools recorded nil results, 289 schools scored cent percent results.
Jharsuguda district scored the highest 85.48 pass percentage, while Koraput district scored the lowest 50.61 per cent.
Similarly, the pass percentage for this year's Madhyama (Sanskrit) examination was 84.62 per cent. Out of 3,563 students who took the exam, 3,015 cleared it.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated the students for their performance. "Congratulate all students who matriculated today. Best wishes for your future," he tweeted.