MUMBAI, May 14 -- Maharashtra recorded a pass percentage of 87.32% in the Class 12 board examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), with the results announced on Wednesday. The state witnessed a decline in overall performance compared to last year's 90.68%. A total of 43,331 students had registered for the examinations, of whom 43,119 appeared and 36,923 cleared the exams. Girls once again outperformed boys, recording a pass percentage of 88.95% against 85.92% among boys. The examinations were conducted across 352 centres for students from 606 schools in Maharashtra. This year also marked the first use of the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 board examinations. Officials said the move was aimed at improving accuracy, speed and transparency while reducing errors in totaling and evaluation. Among Mumbai's top-performing schools were Delhi Public School Nerul, R N Podar School and Junior College and Bal Bharati Public School. Diya Patel and Riddhi Goyal from Delhi Public School, Nerul, emerged among the top scorers in the commerce stream with 99.2%. Speaking to HT, Patel said she plans to pursue higher studies in commerce from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). Goyal, who is also pursuing formal training in Bharatanatyam, is preparing for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and hopes to secure admission to Shri Ram College of Commerce. She aspires to become a chartered accountant. In the science stream, Mrinalini Singh and Pratham Sharma from R N Podar School and Junior College, Santacruz, scored 98%. For Sharma, the result brought mixed emotions after the controversy surrounding the NEET examination. "I have been very upset since yesterday after hearing about the re-NEET examination and the huge scam related to these examinations. This has had a very unfortunate and emotional impact on students who appeared for the NEET exam," Sharma said. Sharma, who appeared for NEET on May 3, said he wants to pursue research in medicine and is planning to enrol in a bio-medicine degree course. Humanities students also registered exceptional performances. Nandika Prakash from DPS Nerul scored 98.8% and said she chose humanities to prepare for a future career in civil services. "To achieve my goal of becoming a civil servant, I chose humanities because it helps me prepare for competitive examinations," she said. Prakash, who had scored 99.4% in Class 10, credited her teachers for helping her maintain consistency in studies....