MUMBAI, May 3 -- The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Saturday declared the Class 12 (HSC) results for the February-March 2026 examination, with the overall pass percentage at 89.79%-a drop of 2.09 percentage points from last year's 91.88%. Two students secured a perfect 100%. A total of 14,44,713 regular students had registered for the examination, of whom 14,33,058 appeared and 12,86,843 passed. Girls once again outperformed boys, recording a pass percentage of 93.15% against 86.80% for boys-a gap of 6.35 percentage points. Among divisions, Konkan topped with 94.14%, while Latur reported the lowest at 84.14%. The Mumbai division recorded a pass percentage of 90.08%. Stream-wise, Science continued to lead despite a marginal dip from 97.35% in 2025 to 96.44% this year. Commerce saw a sharper decline, falling from 92.68% to 87.03%. Arts dropped from 80.52% to 78.02%. Vocational courses declined slightly from 83.26% to 82.74%, while ITI courses fell from 82.03% to 81.78%. The board conducted examinations for 153 subjects, of which 26 recorded 100% results. Private candidates recorded a pass percentage of 80.21%, while repeater students lagged at 36.44%. The exams were held between February 10 and March 18. The board said special efforts were undertaken to ensure a copying-free and stress-free environment. Students can apply online for rechecking and photocopies of answer sheets from May 3 to May 17. Those who did not pass have been advised to appear for supplementary examinations. As part of a "copy-free exam" campaign, several centres were marked sensitive and placed under heightened surveillance, with anti-copying squads deployed. Despite these measures, 1,983 cheating cases were recorded, including 1,469 cases of mass copying in Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Amaravati. "Students and parents should accept the results without any stress. Instructions have been given to the divisional boards to immediately conduct mark verification, photocopying and revaluation of answer sheets of science students appearing in various competitive examinations," said State Board Chairman Trigun Kulkarni. Parag Ajgaonkar, principal of N M College, Vile Parle, said changes in college-level examination patterns had a strong impact on performance. "This year we conducted two preliminary exams, which helped identify problem areas. Last year, 480 students scored above 90%. This year, we set a target of around 550 and achieved it, with 556 students scoring above 90%," he said. Krituka Desai, principal of Mithibai College, said strict attendance rules, teacher training on lesson planning, and regular unit tests improved results. She added that guiding students on answer-writing techniques also played a key role. Ten colleges in the Mumbai division recorded zero pass percentages. Of these, three colleges reported a complete zero result across all streams, while in seven colleges only specific streams had no students passing. Thane district reported the highest number of such cases, with one college recording a complete zero result and four others reporting zero results in specific streams. In Palghar, one college recorded a complete zero result, while four others saw zero results in specific streams. Mumbai city reported one such college, while no cases were reported in Mumbai Suburban or Raigad....