Mumbai, Jul 29 (IANS): A total of 95.30 percent of all students passed the March 2020 SSC examinations conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), the results of which were declared here on Wednesday.

The biggest highlight was a staggering record of 242 students around the state securing full 100 per cent scores - 500/500 - in the results compared to only 20 in 2019, said officials.

A total of 15,75,103 students appeared for the SSC examinations, of which 15,01,105 - 95.30 per cent - have been declared as successful, said MSBSHSE Chairperson Shakuntala Kale.

She said that of the nine divisional boards, the Konkan region recorded the best performance with a pass percentage of 98.77, followed by Kolhapur (97.64), Pune (97.34), Mumbai (96.72), Amravati (95.14) Nagpur (93.84), Nashik (93.73), Latur (93.09) while the lowest was Aurangabad (92).

The overall passing improved significantly compared to 77.10 per cent in 2019, despite the travails the students faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.

Kale attributed the increase in the pass percentage to the re-introduction of internal examinations, oral tests, activity-based questions, etc.

Again, with an overall pass percentage of 96.91, girls performed better than boys whose overall pass percentage was 93.90.

The candidates hailed from 22,570 schools in the state from which 8,360 schools achieved a 100 percent pass percentage.

A staggering 83,262 candidates scored in the plus-90 percent range, with 242 students securing a full 100 percent in the examinations.

They comprise 47 students from two Latur schools - 25 from Shri Keshavraj Madhyamik Vidyalay and 22 from Shri Deshikendra Vidyalay.

Another lot of 7 students who secured the full 100 per cent are from Shripatrao Bhosale High School in Osmanabad, and others scattered across the state.