CBSE 12th Results 2026: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday declared the Class 12 board examination results for 2026, recording an overall pass percentage of 85.20 per cent, down by 3.19 percentage points from last year's 88.39 per cent. Students can access their scorecards through the official CBSE result portals.
Over 17 Lakh Students Appeared, 15 Lakh Clear Exam
This year, 17,80,365 students registered for the Class 12 examinations, of whom 17,68,968 appeared and 15,07,109 cleared the exam. The examinations were conducted from February 17 to April 10.
Girls Outperform Boys
Girls once again outperformed boys in the board examinations. The pass percentage among girls stood at 88.86 per cent, while boys recorded 82.13 per cent, creating a gap of 6.73 percentage points. Transgender candidates recorded a 100 per cent pass percentage.
94,028 Students Score 90% And Above
CBSE data also showed that 94,028 students scored 90 per cent or above marks in the examinations, accounting for 5.32 per cent of the total candidates. Meanwhile, 17,113 students secured 95 per cent and above, representing 0.97 per cent of the candidates.
Trivandrum Tops Region-Wise Performance
Among the regions, Trivandrum emerged as the best-performing region with a pass percentage of 95.62 per cent, followed by Chennai at 93.84 per cent and Bengaluru at 93.19 per cent. Other high-performing regions included Vijayawada at 92.77 per cent, Ahmedabad at 90.60 per cent, and Gurugram at 88.45 per cent.
Prayagraj Records Lowest Pass Percentage
Prayagraj recorded the lowest regional pass percentage at 72.43 per cent, while Patna stood at 74.45 per cent. Delhi West and Delhi East recorded pass percentages of 92.34 per cent and 91.73 per cent, respectively.
CBSE Introduces Full-Scale On Screen Marking System
In a major reform initiative, CBSE also implemented full-scale On Screen Marking (OSM) for the evaluation of Class 12 answer sheets in 2026. The board said this was the largest OSM exercise conducted so far, with 98,66,622 answer books evaluated digitally.
OSM Aims To Improve Transparency And Accuracy
According to CBSE, the digital evaluation system was introduced to improve transparency, reduce human errors, and ensure objective assessment in line with the National Education Policy (NEP).
The board said the system eliminates errors related to totalling, posting, and uploading of marks while ensuring that every answer is evaluated strictly according to the marking scheme.
CBSE also highlighted that the digital evaluation process reduces manual handling of answer sheets, enables evaluation from different parts of the country and abroad without physically transporting copies, and improves accountability and efficiency in the assessment process.
The board added that the initiative also promotes an eco-friendly and scalable evaluation system capable of handling lakhs of answer books efficiently.
