According to the results published by the Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE) on Friday, 192,267 students among 405,338 who took the test under the regular category in March got the passing grades. The pass percentage is highest since 2011, when 55 percent of the examinees had passed the SLC test.

Compared to last year, the pass percentage this year went up by around four percent. Last year, 43.92 percent students had passed the examination.

Among the students who passed this year’s SLC exams, 21,247 students secured distinction grades (80 percent and above), 90,176 achieved first division grades, 76,482 got second division grades and 4,362 passed with third division grades. As many as 18,260 students passed the test this year after they were awarded grace marks of five in two subjects maximum.

The results this year show that the pass rate also increased in the exempted category from 10.9 percent of last year to 13.8 percent this year. Among the 136,051 candidates who appeared in the test under the exempted category, 18,778 secured pass marks.

Officials claim that the gradual increase in the success rate of SLC test reflects the improvement in the quality of education.

“This is a positive sign but it is not satisfactory,” said Education Secretary Bishwo Prakash Pandit. “We hope to see a better performance in the future.”

For the first time in 80 years history of SLC test, there were more girl students than boys sitting for this year’s test. But when it came to the results, boy students outperformed their female counterparts. This year’s SLC test results show that 53.94 percent of the total male examinees secured the passing  grades against 40.96 percent for the girl students.

According to Examination Controller Bishnu Bahadur Dware, 55,500 students failed in one subject and 68,300 failed in two subjects this year.

These students will be allowed to retake the test on the subjects they have flunked. The supplementary exam, Dware said, will be conducted starting on August 5.

The failure rate is highest in Mathematics followed by Science and English.

Dware said the test results for technical studies will be published within a week in the letter grading system. As many as 3,888 students from 99 public schools across the country had appeared in the SLC examinations under the technical studies category.