New Delhi, May 18 (IANS): Girls have performed better than boys in the Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE) for class 10 and the Indian School Certificate (ISC) for class 12, an official said here on Monday.

The ICSE results were declared on Monday by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE).

"In ICSE examinations, girls have done way better than boys; their pass percentage is 98.95 percent. Boys have achieved a pass percentage of 98.12 percent. In ISC examinations, girls have done better than boys, pass percentage is 97.49 percent and boys have achieved a pass percentage of 95.27 percent," CISCE chief executive and secretary Gerry Arathoon said in a statement.

Arkya Chatterjee from Vivekananda Mission School, Kolkata topped the ISC exams with 99.75 percent marks, while Sougata Chowdhury from St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Kolkata topped the ICSE with 99.75 percent marks. A total of 158,833 students appeared for the ICSE out of which 88,209 (55.54 percent) were boys and 70,624 (44.46 percent) were girls.

A total of 71,141 students appeared for the ISC examinations this year, out of which 38,659 (54.34 percent) were boys and 32,482 (45.66 percent) were girls. In ICSE, the pass percentage is 98.49 percent -- up by 0.21 percent from last year, and 96.28 -- up by 1.01 percent from last year percent -- in ISC.

In ICSE, south India region has the best pass percentage -- 99.66 percent, followed by the western region having a pass percentage of 99.55 percent. The region also has the highest percentage of girls, 49.43 percent, who had appeared in the examination. Also, in ISC results the southern region had the best pass percentage with 99.08 percent, followed by the western region having a pass percentage of 97.47 percent.

In addition, the southern region had the highest percentage of girls -- 49.49 percent appearing in the examination.