More than 11 lakh students will appear for the CBSE examinations across the country this year, the highest in the history of the Board.

A total of 6,46,387 students — 3,77,448 boys and 2,68,939 girls — will appear for the Class 10 examinations beginning on March 2, a 6.55 per cent increase from last year's 6,06,632 candidates.

According to the Board, 4,54,045 students — 2,63,286 boys and 1,90,759 girls — will appear for the Class 12 examinations, registering a 7.04 per cent rise from last year's 4,21,463 candidates. There had been a significant increase in the number of students from foreign countries and candidates appearing in special categories, CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly told reporters. This time, 16,063 students — 9,568 in Class 10 and 6,495 in Class 12 — would take the board examinations in 81 centres in 19 foreign countries, including the Middle East. The number of students appearing in foreign countries had increased by 7.14 per cent.

Mr. Ganguly said the number of schools participating in the examinations and the number of centres had also gone up.

(www.thehindu.com)