Encouraging Numbers, But Is It Enough?

The National Examination Board on Monday published the results of this year's Grade 12 exams. It is encouraging to see that this year’s results have improved significantly compared to last year’s. Of the 396,347 regular examinees who sat for the exams in May, 242,465 students received passing grades in all subjects, resulting in a pass rate of 61.17 percent. In the partial category, 41,840 out of 114,640 students passed their exams, yielding a 36.49 percent pass rate. In the regular category, 13,502 students scored a GPA between 3.61 and 4, which is the highest range. Another 55,896 received GPAs between 3.21 and 3.60, while 69,812 scored between 2.81 and 3.20. On the lower end, 8,964 students had GPAs between 2.01 and 2.40, and only 23 students scored between 1.61 and 2. A large number—153,882 students—received non-graded (NG) results, indicating they failed one or more subjects. According to the NEB, most failing grades were in English, Accountancy, Social Studies, and Nepali. Those who failed or missed no more than two subjects can reappear in their exams in mid-September. Overall, this year's pass rate marks a clear increase from last year's 52 percent, reflecting a 9 percentage point rise.