NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Education has recommended seven states to adopt a common board for classes 10 and 12 after an analysis by the School Education Department flagged that these states accounted for 66 per cent of student failures last year, officials said.The seven states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Manipur, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal.There are a total of 66 school examination boards in the country, including three national-level boards and 63 state-level boards (54 regular and 12 open boards),While the top 33 boards cover 97 per cent of students, the remaining 33 boards cover just 3 per cent of students.”Common board for class 10 and 12 is the way forward for ease of schooling. Not having a common board leads to poor academic outcomes. We have recommended these states to adopt a common board,” School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar said.A total of 22.17 lakh students failed Class 10, and 20.16 lakh failed Class 12 across the country in 2024.While the numbers have improved over the decade, officials say they remain a significant barrier to better retention and transition to higher education.”Role of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in these states became important to engage the unsuccessful students in education. NIOS’s present prominence around Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana (where there are least failure rates), needs to be expanded to other states.”Standardisation of assessment process, curriculums, paper setting, elevation (to the next class), exam span also needs attention of Boards,” Kumar said.
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