MUMBAI, April 16 -- Schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in Maharashtra have recorded a pass percentage of 96.66% in the Class 10 exams for the academic year 2025-26. The New Delhi-based board on Wednesday announced that the pass percentage for girls was 97.35% and for boys 96.01%. That's a total 128,933 students who passed, of the 134,083 who took the exam. Surabhi Ranade, from Indo Scot Global School and Junior College, Thane, is a topper among students in Mumbai and the MMR. Her result: 99.2%. "I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my teachers. Their belief in me played a huge role in helping me achieve this score." Ranade aspires to clear the JEE. Another the top scorer, Dhaval Sawant from Ryan International School, Kandivali, scored 99.04%. "The questions were more competency-based, and I prepared for this through online resources and guidance from my teachers. I always try to stay positive, which helped throughout my studies," said Sawant, who plans to prepare for the JEE, to pursue industrial engineering. Garv Soni from St Joseph's High School, Panvel, scored 99%. "I focused on subjects I was less interested in, like Hindi. I finally scored 100 marks in that subject," said Soni. He wants to become an AI engineer and is preparing for the JEE exams. Expressing satisfaction with the results after a shift in the curriculum from memorisation to competency-based learning, Avnita Bir, director-principal of R N Podar School, said, "Overall, there was excellent performance in all languages. There were 19 perfect scores in English and 9 in French. Maths was a bit disappointing, as students lost marks due to a tough five-mark question." Bir added, "Despite many challenges, including students with special needs and learning disabilities, the school achieved a 100% pass percentage." Anshuman Das was among the top scorers from the school, with 99.4% in the best five subjects. BMC schools teaching the CBSE curriculum scored a pass percentage of 92.89%, with Arya Lamne from Mithaghar CBSE school in Mulund emerging as the overall topper, with 97.8%. There are 11 municipal schools in Mumbai affiliated to the CBSE. Other high scorers are: Saurabh Yadav (97.2%) from Poonam Nagar School, Kaustubh Tripathi (97%) from Rajawadi School, Aryan Mayekar (96.6%) and Shreya Singh (96.4%) from Poonam Nagar School, and Mahi Solanki (96.2%) from Mithaghar School....