Wednesday 13 / May / 2026
Muscat: The declaration of the 2026 Class 12 results by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday triggered disappointment among students and parents in Oman, with many claiming their scores were far below expectations.
Several students expressed shock after finding that their final marks closely mirrored their internal pre-board examination scores.
“I got almost the same marks as my pre-board exams. This is unfair because board exam marks are usually much higher,” a Class 12 student said.
Indian schools conduct three major internal assessments for Grade 12 students — quarterly, half-yearly and pre-board examinations.
According to teachers, the board was expected to consider the best performance from these assessments after the cancellation of examinations in the Gulf region.
“The CBSE was supposed to take the best scores from these exams, but in some cases that clearly did not happen. It has come as a shock to both parents and students,” a teacher said.
In mid-March, the CBSE cancelled Class 12 board examinations in several Middle East countries, including Oman, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing regional tensions and security concerns. The board later adopted an alternative assessment method.
More than 2,200 students from Oman had registered for the Class 12 examinations this year.
School authorities also pointed to a sharp decline in the number of students securing perfect scores in subjects.
“Students could not score 100 out of 100 because the marks were based on internal assessments,” a school official said.
Teachers admitted that even some leading schools in Muscat witnessed failures this year — an uncommon trend compared with previous years.
“We never had students failing in our school earlier, but this year the results were different,” a teacher from a Muscat-based school said.
Students said the cancellation of examinations had significantly affected their overall performance.
“The war situation affected our marks badly. If the exams had been conducted, we could have scored at least 10 to 15 per cent more because we were much better prepared for the final exams than for the school tests,” a student said.
The overall pass percentage also recorded a decline this year.
The CBSE reported an overall pass percentage of 85.20 per cent, down 3.9 percentage points from last year.
According to board data, 1,857,517 students registered for the Class 12 examinations in 2026.
Girls once again outperformed boys, recording a pass percentage of 88.86 per cent compared with 82.13 per cent for boys. Transgender students achieved a 100 per cent pass rate.
While the board does not publish a traditional merit list, 5.32 per cent of students — 94,028 candidates — scored 90 per cent and above, while 0.97 per cent, or 17,113 students, secured 95 per cent and above.
In India, the Trivandrum region emerged as the best-performing zone with a pass percentage of 95.62 per cent, followed by Chennai at 93.84 per cent and Bengaluru at 93.19 per cent.
The board also highlighted its transition to full-scale On-Screen Marking (OSM), under which 9,866,622 answer books were digitally evaluated to reduce errors in totalling and posting marks.
For students seeking improvement or placed in the compartment category, supplementary examinations will be held on July 15, 2026, with the application process beginning on June 2.
