Gurugram/ROHTAK, May 15 -- The Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) announced Class 10 results on Thursday, with Gurugram slipping four spots to rank 18 after recording a pass percentage of 89.44%. A total of 15,266 students from Gurugram appeared for the examination, of whom 13,654 passed. The overall state pass percentage stood at 89.60%, down from 92.89% last year. The exams were conducted between February 26 and March 20 across 1,431 centres in the state. Around 276,640 students, including 133,000 girls and 143,000 boys, appeared for the examination in the state. Of them, 247,860 passed, while 6,201 were placed in the "essential repeat" category. Girls outperformed boys, recording a pass percentage of 91.64%, compared to 87.69% among boys. Deepika from Adarsh Senior Secondary School in Miran, Bhiwani, topped the state with 499 marks. The second position was jointly secured by Ronak of BSM Senior Secondary School, Bigowa, Charkhi Dadri; Khushi of NCVM High School, Putthi Saman, Hisar; Antu from Swami Vivekanand Senior Secondary School, Kheri Jalab, Hisar and Deepanshu of Balaji Senior Secondary School, Bhungarka, Mahendergarh, all scoring 498 marks each. Eleven students shared the third rank with 497 marks. In Gurugram, Durvish of Devki Kailash Public School, Pataudi, emerged as the district topper with 494 marks, followed by Nicki of Government Senior Secondary School, Nawada Fatehpur, with 493 marks. Druvesh told HT that his ambition is to become a chartered accountant (CA). "I am really happy. I hope I continue to make my parents and teachers proud. The most important part of preparation is have ample of time for revision," he said. Charkhi Dadri emerged as the best-performing district with a pass percentage of 96.01%, followed by Jind (94.68%) and Mahendergarh (93.96%). Panipat and Rewari recorded a pass percentage 93.61%. Nuh remained the lowest performing district with a pass percentage of 68.98%, while Faridabad recorded 85.05%. Rural areas outperformed urban centres, recording a pass percentage of 90.25% compared to 87.94% in cities. Meanwhile, private schools outperformed government schools, recording a pass percentage of 92.54% and 87.23% respectively. Ashok Prajapati, a government school teacher in Gurugram, said the decline in the district's overall results is due to non-teaching duties assigned to the teachers which consume a significant amount of time, affecting academic focus in classrooms. Despite several calls and messages by HT to the district education officer (DEO) Indu Boken for a comment, no response was received till the time of going to print....