Students of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) following old syllabus who could not clear their papers in this year’s supplementary examination will have to switch to new syllabus for the March 2009 examination, said Vijaysheela Sardesai, chairperson of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination.

Conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) in September-October 2008, the results were declared on Wednesday morning. “There are around 10,000 such repeaters from Pune division and 54,500 repeaters from the state who will have to switch to the new mode of syllabus that will have 20 marks oral exams for languages,” Sardesai said. The last date for sending application forms to appear in March 2009 is November 26 and December 03 with late fees.

The passing percentage of SSC students following new syllabus from Pune division dipped by about 8 percent from 26.29 last year to 18.86 this year.

Out of the 14,949 SSC repeaters from Pune division who appeared for the exam, 2820 cleared it. However, the passing percentage of HSC students following new syllabus from Pune division has seen an increase of 3 percent from 20.94 last year to 23.14 this year. A total of 8328 HSC students from Pune appeared for the exam, out of which 2822 cleared it.

Pune division stands sixth in both –SSC and HSC -- among the eight divisions as far as students’ passing percentage following new syllabus is concerned.

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