The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) on Thursday announced the Class 10 and Class 12 board examination results for 2026 which showed a marginal improvement in overall pass percentages over last year. A total of 99.18% of students passed Grade 10 (ICSE) and 99.13% passed Grade 12 (ISC) this year, up from 99.09% and 99.02% respectively in 2025.
This year, 2,58,721 students from 2,957 schools appeared for the ICSE (Class 10) exam, compared to 2,52,557 students from 2,803 schools in 2025. 1,03,316 students from 1,553 schools appeared for the ISC (Class 12) exams, up from 99,551 students from 1,460 schools last year.
CISCE does not release toppers list or merit ranking for ICSE and ISC examinations. It last announced the list of top achievers in 2023 and has stopped this practice from 2024 onwards to reduce unwanted tension and competition among students.
“Ensuring the availability of qualified teachers and maintaining quality education remains a major challenge, especially in rural areas, which is reflected in the relatively lower number of schools and students in Grade 12 compared to Grade 10. However, the data indicates steady improvement with each passing year,” said Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, CEO and Secretary of CISCE, during a press conference announcing the results.
Girls continued to outperform boys in both 10th and 12th grades, with the gap largely unchanged from last year. In the tenth grade, the success rate for girls increased slightly to 99.46% (from 99.37% in 2025), while boys scored 98.93% (98.84% in 2025). Likewise, in Grade 12, girls achieved a pass rate of 99.48% (99.45% last year), compared to 98.81% for boys (98.64% in 2025).
In the tenth grade, the Western Region topped the success rate with a pass rate of 99.85%, followed by the South (99.81%), the North (98.86%), and the Eastern Region (98.84%). In Grade 12, South Zone has the best pass rate of 99.87% followed by West (99.55%), North (99.05%) and East (98.93%).
In Delhi-National Capital Region, 6,386 out of 6,400 students cleared the ICSE (Class 10) examination, recording a pass rate of 99.78%. For ISC (Semester 12), 3,535 students out of 3,547 students passed the exam, which means a pass rate of 99.66%.
In the Class 10 examination, 1,313 candidates appeared with learning difficulties (including dyslexia), of whom 132 scored above 90%. In addition, 54 visually impaired candidates appeared, of whom 17 scored above 90%. In the 12th grade examination, 305 candidates appeared with learning disabilities, 36 of whom obtained a score above 90%. Of the 22 visually impaired candidates, 9 achieved scores above 90%.
