New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS): The number of girls and boys appearing for this year's board exams for class 10th and 12th have increased by 3.37 percent and 1.01 percent respectively, officials said Friday.

According to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the number of girls appearing for class 10th boards have increased from 5,35,030 in 2014 to 5,55,912 this year - a rise of 3.70 percent.

While the percentage of boys has increased by 3.02 percent this year as 8,17,941 boys will sit for the exams in 2015 compared to the last year when 7,93,940 boys appeared for the exams.

Similarly, the number of girls appearing for class 12th boards rose from 4,26,810 in 2014 to 4,32,985 this year - an increase of 1.44 percent. The boys registered a growth of 0.71 percent, as this year a total of 6,07,383 boys will appear for boards against last year's figure of 6,03,064.

However, the total number of physically challenged candidates in both classes 10th and 12th have gone down this year.

The total number of class 10th students under the physically challenged category have reduced from 3,180 in 2014 to 2,655 this year and the class 12th candidates reduced from 2,453 (2014) to 2,066 (2015).

In both the cases, students under the visually impaired, hearing and speech impaired, physically handicapped and spastic categories have seen a decline while the number of dyslexic and autistic candidates has increased marginally.

The CBSE further said that the results for both the classes were likely to be declared in May 2015.