New Delhi: Hansika Shukla and Karishma Arora were declared joint toppers in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s Class 12 board exams as per the results declared on Thursday, with the overall pass percentage being 83.4 per cent.

The girls outshone boys this time by nine per cent with both the girl toppers – Shukla from Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad and Arora of S.D. Public School, Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh – scoring 499 out of 500.

The Trivandrum region emerged at the top with a pass percentage of 98.2 per cent. The Chennai region stood second with a pass percentage of 92.93 while Delhi stood at the third place with 91.87 per cent.

The pass percentage for boys was 79.40, while for girls it was 88.7 and 83.33 for the transgender category.

The pass percentage of children with special needs was 90.25 per cent.

In 2018, the pass percentage was 83.01 while in 2019 it was 83.4 per cent – a rise of 0.39 per cent.

A total of 12,05,484 students from across the country took the examination and 10,05,427 cleared it.

The Kendriya Vidyalayas recorded a 98.54 pass percentage while the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas registered 96.62 per cent and government-run schools 87.17 per cent.

Girls from Uttar Pradesh become toppers in CBSE Class 12 results:

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar congratulated the students.

“Congratulations to the 10 lakh students who have succeeded in Class 12 CBSE board examinations and best of luck for those who couldn’t make it this time but will make it in the next attempt,” he tweeted.

The Minister also praised the CBSE for conducting the exams smoothly and declaring the results in a record time.

“The results are available on the board’s website and students can check it using their admit card IDs,” a senior official said.

The results have been announced within 28 days of the last date of the examination.

The Class 12 examination began on February 16, earlier than previous years. The results, which is usually announced by the third week of May, is also being announced earlier than scheduled.

Around 13 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 examination conducted by the CBSE.