NEW DELHI: With a 3.43 per cent and 1.96 per cent increase in pass percentage of the Indian School Certificate (ISC) Class XII and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Class X examinations respectively, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations on Saturday said this was their "best result" so far.

"Our results have been steadily improving over the years. This year's result is the best so far," said G. Arathoon, Additional Secretary and Officiating Chief Executive and Secretary of the Council after declaring the all-India results for 2007 at a press conference.

The pass percentage for ISC and ICSE this year is 96.96 per cent and 97.96 per cent respectively.

Girls outshone boys in Class XII as well as Class X. They achieved a pass percentage of 98.24 in ISC and 98.53 in ICSE. When compared to the boys, fewer girls were unsuccessful and there were fewer cases of withdrawal among them.

As many as 45, 293 candidates -- including 19, 918 girls -- appeared for the ISC exam, while 97, 303 students comprising 42, 749 girls wrote the ICSE exam.

The highest aggregate marks for Class XII is 98.75 per cent attained by a girl candidate from Kolkata and a Cuttack boy who scored 98.4 per cent has topped Class X.

The ISC examination was conducted in 50 written subjects, of which 14 are Indian languages and six are foreign languages. For ICSE students, the exam was in 61 written subjects comprising 20 Indian languages and 11 foreign languages.

For the first time, both the ISC and ICSE students -- including those at foreign schools affiliated to the Council -- appeared in an exam for "Environmental Education", a compulsory subject that was introduced last year.

The pass percentage for this subject at ISC level is 97.68 and 97.97 for ICSE candidates.

With a mighty 98.33 percent, the Southern region was ahead of others in the pass percentage of ISC candidates, while in the case of ICSE, the Western region topped with 99.28 per cent with its Southern counterpart coming a close second with 99.19 per cent.

The pass percentage for foreign schools in ISC and ICSE has been brilliant too. While Class XII candidates in foreign schools have scored a cent per cent result, those who appeared in Class X exams were not too far behind with a pass percentage of 98.86. "In ISC exams, 111 candidates have secured grade one in each of the six subjects and 1,329 have achieved this grade in each of the seven subjects in ICSE," said Mr. Arathoon.

In the past one year, 100 schools were affiliated to Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. At present, 1,486 Indian schools and 27 foreign institutions were affiliated to the Council, he said.

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