NEW DELHI: The Chennai region has come out on top for the second consecutive year, with 96.18 per cent of candidates clearing the Central Board of Secondary Education Class X examination, results of which were announced here on Friday.

The region has improved its performance by 0.58 percentage points over the previous year and secured the distinction of having the highest percentage of girls who are eligible for the qualifying certificate for the second year in a row.

With regard to the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) or the average of grade points obtained in the five main subjects, the Chennai region has recorded the highest figure of 4,801 students who scored a 10.0 CGPA.

Grading system

In a first, the CBSE has used a grading system for the results. Earlier, marks were allotted for every subject. This year grades have been awarded on a nine-point scale to indicate subject-wise performance.

Students can score grades ranging from A1 to E2 denoting a marks range of 91-100 and to 20 and below respectively. The highest grade point a student can secure is 10. The region with the second highest percentage of students eligible for the qualifying certificate is Ajmer, followed by Panchkula, Delhi, Allahabad and Guwahati.

There is a 0.44 per cent increase in candidates who are eligible for the qualifying certificate compared with 2009. The percentage of girls eligible for the qualifying certificate is 90.68, over two percentage points more than the percentage of boys who are eligible. Further 6,067 girls secured a 10.0 CGPA, against 4,987 boys. The number of girls who appeared for the exam also went up by 32,309 from last year.

A maximum number of 1,06,205 girls from the Delhi region became eligible for the qualifying certificate, followed by Allahabad, Chennai, Panchkula, Ajmer and Guwahati. The maximum number of candidates also appeared from the Delhi region.

A total of 9,02,747 students registered for the examination this year, an increase of nearly 9.50 per cent over last year. The examinations were held from March 3 to 31 across the country.

The performance of Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, government schools and government-aided schools improved by 0.52, 0.70, 2.93 and 2.49 percentage points respectively, while the performance of independent and private candidates dipped by 0.10 and 5.42 percentage points respectively.

Discontinuing with the practice of declaring compartment/fail, the CBSE has declared a total of 9,4364 students eligible for improvement of performance this year. While the general category improved its performance by 0.73 percentage points over last year, the performance of Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes went up by 2.81 and 5.30 percentage points respectively.