Districts outshine Kolkata, boys outperform girls in Bengal Class 10 board exams

Students celebrate in Kolkata after the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education declares results of 2025 class X board exams
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI

On Friday (May 2, 2025), the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) declared the results of this year’s Class X board exam, which commenced on February 10 and ended on April 2. 

Students from districts of West Bengal have outperformed students from Kolkata in the Class 10 board examination (Madhyamik Pariksha) this year.

The highest pass percentage this year was recorded among students from Purba Medinipur district (96.46%), followed closely by students of Kalimpong district in north Bengal (96.09%). Kolkata ranks third among the districts in terms of pass percentage this year (92.30%).

Meanwhile, among the 66 students who secured top 10 ranks in the State this year, only one from Kolkata belonged to the list.

Adrita Sarkar from Raiganj Coronation High School in Uttar Dinajpur district ranked first. Anubhab Biswas from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Vidyamandir in Malda and Soumya Pal from Vishnupur High School in Bankura jointly ranked second. The third rank has been secured by a female candidate, Ishani Chakraborty, from Bankura’s Kotulpur Saroj Basini Balika Vidyalaya.

Abantika Roy from Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Sister Nivedita Girls’ School is the only student from Kolkata to secure a rank in the top 10 candidates of this year. She ranked eighth.

Eleven of the 66 top rankers hailed from the Bankura district. Other districts with a high number of State toppers include Purba Medinipur, Malda, and Hooghly.

“With the help of the West Bengal government, WBBSE has established a widespread reach in the districts, with students appearing from very remote places. This is a matter of pride for both the State and the nation… I believe that students from Kolkata perform well holistically, which is why the overall performance of the pool of candidates is very strong, irrespective of their representation in the list of toppers,” Ramanuj Ganguly, President of WBBSE’s Ad Hoc Committee, said on Friday.

Boys outperform girls despite being outnumbered

This year, the percentage of successful regular candidates stood at 86.56%, an all-time high according to Mr. Ganguly.

The number of girls appearing was 1,17,663 more than boys in the Class X exam. Notably, there has also been a spike in the number of female candidates this year compared to last year.

However, only 84.39% of girls were successful this year, compared to the 89.19% of boys who passed. Even among the top ten rank holders, the number of boys exceeds the female students.

Kalimpong district records the highest pass percentage (97.43%) among female candidates. Uttar Dinajpur recorded the lowest pass percentage among girls (69.72%).

A total of 9,69,425 examinees appeared this year, a slight uptick from 9,12,598 examinees last year. The State recorded a marginal increase of 0.25% in the overall pass percentage this year from 2024.

Among the eight districts in north Bengal, while Kalimpong records a very high percentage of 96.09% successful candidates this year, other districts in the region have recorded pass percentages in the lower range.

With a success rate of 69.47%, Jalpaiguri in north Bengal has recorded the lowest pass percentage among all districts in the State.