MUMBAI: In the HSC results declared on Saturday, city colleges reported stable overall outcomes but indicated tighter evaluation standards.“Correction looked tougher, and English seems to have pulled down scores,” said HR College principal Pooja Ramchandani. At St Xavier’s College, vice-principal Savio D’Souza linked the dip to declining attendance. “Students need to return to attending lectures and practicals. Many colleges are witnessing shrinking classrooms. At Xavier’s, attendance is mandatory, and while we face resistance, it contributes to better performance,” he said. The college recorded 100% results in arts and commerce, while science stood at 98.73%.At N M College of Commerce and Economics, performance improved. From around 480 students scoring above 90% last year, the college set a target of 550 and surpassed it. Of the 1,064 Commerce students, more than half secured 90% and above.
“We set a clear target and conducted two preliminary exams, which helped students prepare better,” said principal Parag Ajgaonkar. The college also reported over 50 students scoring a perfect 100 in Mathematics and likely recorded the city’s top commerce scorer, with Jyotirmoy Bhadeck securing a 98% aggregate.Across Mumbai’s 1,436 junior colleges, nearly three-fourths recorded pass percentages above 80%, with a concentration in the 90% range.Girls continued to outperform boys, recording a pass percentage of 90% against 85.1% for boys. The statewide trend mirrored this, with girls at 91.7% ahead of boys at 84.42%, widening the gender gap.Meanwhile, across HSC divisions in the state, 2026 saw a broad-based decline compared to 2025, with Mumbai slipping from 90.4% to 87.5%, Pune from 89.6% to 89.3%, Nagpur from 89.2% to 87%, and Latur recording one of the sharpest drops from 87.6% to 81.8%, while Konkan remained the top-performing division despite a fall from 96% to 93.35%, indicating a statewide dip with varying degrees of impact across regions.
A board official said that more than 90% of exam centres across the state were brought under CCTV surveillance this year, acting as a strong deterrent against unfair means and practices. “A few district officials have reported poor performance in English and Mathematics at some centres that earlier reported cases of mass copying. When the quality of teaching and learning and the students have remained unchanged, the state’s drive to have copy-free examinations could have helped rationalise results,” added the official.The official further said districts such as Latur have recorded a significant decline in pass percentages. A detailed analysis will be undertaken soon to understand the factors behind the sharper drop in certain regions.In a parallel move to strengthen examination processes, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education piloted GPS-enabled digital locks to secure the movement of question papers in Baramati taluka under the Pune division. Officials said the system, which tracked sealed trunks from custody centres to examination venues, was successful and may be scaled up.The board has also introduced administrative changes this year, merging marksheets and passing certificates into a single document. The format for printing student names has been standardised, shifting from the earlier surname-first format to first name, father’s name, and surname.Loveena Jain, 96% Arts, Mithibai College of Arts French and logic, I didn’t have any tuition studied all on my own. English was a little challenging especially the creative writing section, you can’t prepare a whole lot on advance. I would suggest that students should complete their portion before prelims and after that keep the time after for only revision. Even when there was a gap between papers i practiced 10 chapters daily for 7 days a week, so the answers are printed in my mind. BBA or BMS is my future and then i will go on for a MBA.Devanshi Ruparel, 97.17%, RA Poddar College of Commerce and Economics Maths was my favourite paper,I have always loved maths, exploring different concepts, and solving new sums is what i like really like to do. English was a challenging paper, i lost a few marks there. Economics and Logic too were subjects which were quiet hard because of the theory heavy nature of the subject. Here advice to her juniors who will take up the exam next year is “always be consistent, have confidence in yourself and above all have a clear goal.At Podar College, the other high scorers in the commerce stream were Yajat Shinde (97.17%), Felisa Parekh (97%) and Tanmay Jogalekar (96.67)
