Government schools punch above their weight in JKBOSE merit list

17 Govt school students share top 3 positions in 10th, 12th results

Setbacks don’t decide futures: Education Minister tells unsuccessful students

Srinagar, Jan 15: Government school students dominated the topper lists in the 10th and 12th class results announced on Wednesday, challenging the entrenched perception that “quality equals private schooling.”

Quietly closing the “elite gap”, government school students featured prominently in the top three positions across all streams, with seven of the 13 toppers from government schools in the Science stream.

The government schools also secured a majority or were on parity in the Arts and Commerce streams.

In the Home Science stream, all the top three positions were from government schools.

While the private schools lead in pass percentage, government schools dominate excellence tiers, highlighting inequality in teaching outcomes versus exam coaching culture.

The private schools had an overall pass percentage of 95 percent compared to 80 percent of government schools.

Yet, the top ranks skewed toward government institutions.

This highlights that while private schools excel at ensuring pass-through, government schools still produce high-achieving outliers.

The government schools also broke historical dominance in Science education despite the fact that Science access is often tied to labs, coaching, and infrastructure.

Seven of the 13 top Science rankers being from government schools indicates improved public investment or teacher quality.

In the Arts and Home Science streams, the government institutions led from the front, emerging as centres of excellence in the traditionally neglected streams.

This comes as a boost for government schools as Arts and Home Science are critical for inclusive education and local employability.

The first position in the Arts stream went to a student from the Government Higher Secondary School, Mattan.

In the Home Science stream, all the top three position holders come from government schools.

CLASS 10TH RESULTS

These revelations came to the fore with the J&K Board of School Education (JKBOSE) on Wednesday, declaring the result of the annual class 10th regular annual (2025) examination with an overall pass percentage of 85.03.

As per the official figures produced by JKBOSE, a total of 94,845 students – 47,736 boys and 47,109 girls had enrolled for the class 10th annual examination, of which 80,650 students – 40,242 boys and 40,408 girls passed the exam with a pass percentage of 85.03.

The pass percentage of girls has been recorded as 85.78, while the pass percentage of boys has been recorded as 84.30.The JKBOSE data reveals that around 16,550 students passed the exam with Grade A1, 14,398 with A2, 16,014 with B1, 17,519 with B2, 13,623 with C1, 2525 with C2, and 21 with Grade D in the JKBOSE class 10th examination.

Also, 11 students have been shown Dispute Eligibility (DE), 33 students faced cancellation of exams, and four have been disqualified for a year.As per the JKBOSE figures, the pass percentage of government schools in the class 10th examination was recorded as 79.83.Of the 61,958 students from Kashmir and Jammu winter zones who appeared in the examination, 49,460 have been declared qualified.Also, the pass percentage of private school students has been recorded as 94.84.Of 32,887 students who appeared in the class 10th examination from private schools, 31,190 passed. 12TH RESULTSThe pass percentage of the students in class 12th examination was recorded as 84.02.

According to officials, a total of 70,735 students from Kashmir and the winter zones of Jammu appeared in the examination, of which 59,435 passed.

Girls outperformed boys in class 12th results, taking a lead of 4 percent in the pass percentage.While the pass percentage of boys was recorded as 82, girls recorded a higher success percentage of 86.

As per the JKBOSE data, the pass percentage of government schools in the Kashmir division was recorded as 92, while 86.04 percent students of government schools from the Jammu division qualified the exams.Also, the pass percentage of students from private schools of the Jammu division was 94, while the private schools from the Kashmir division recorded a pass percentage of 93.As per the official data, a total of 64,486 students of government schools from Kashmir and the winter zones of Jammu appeared in the exams, of which 53,620 passed.Also, 6249 students from private schools appeared in the class 12th exams, of which 5815 students passed.

MERIT LIST

Around 29 students from both Government Higher Secondary Schools and private schools shared the top three positions in all the streams.

In the science stream, of the 13 students, seven from different government schools figure in the list of top three position holders.

Similarly, in the Commerce stream, of the six students who shared the first three positions, three were from government schools.In the Arts stream, out of seven students who shared the first three positions, four are from government schools. In the Arts stream, the first position has been bagged by a student of Government Higher Secondary School, Mattan.In the Home Science stream, the first three positions have been bagged by students of government schools, including the first two positions by the students of Government Higher Secondary School Kothi Bagh, while the third position has been bagged by a student of Government Girls Higher Secondary School Ranibagh, Anantnag.However, the girls maintained their dominance in the merit list of the class 12th examinations.

As per the official data, the 13 students who shared the first three positions include 10 girls and three boys.In the Commerce and Arts streams, the first three positions have been shared by six girls each, and the first three positions in the Home Science Stream have been shared by three girls as well. (GK)