The change in curriculum for Class X in the 2025-26 academic year could have led to the drop in number of students securing A+ grade in all subjects by half this year, General Education Principal Secretary Sharmila Mary Joseph said on Friday.

The number of students who secured A+ in all subjects this year is 30,514. It is fewer than half the number of students who got full A+ last year – 61,449.

Ms. Joseph, who was addressing mediapersons after declaring the SSLC results said the change in question paper pattern could have contributed in a small measure to this fall. “The Directorate of General Education and the Pareeksha Bhavan would examine the reasons. Teachers would also be urged to adopt an exam-oriented pedagogical approach,” she said.

Director of General Education N.S.K. Umesh said the number of students securing full A+ now was around what was seen in the period from 2015- 2020. It had gone up sharply only in the period from 2021-24.

The decline in number of full A+ students could be attributed to new curriculum, textbooks, and question paper pattern. However, an analysis would be done, he added.

According to result data provided by the General Education department, in 2015 the number of students with full A+ was 15,430. It went up to 22,879 in 2016, 20,967 in 2017, 34,313 in 2018, 37,334 in 2019, and 41,906 in 2020.

In 2021, as many as 1,25,509 students got full A+. In 2022, this dropped to 44,363, rose again the next year to 68,604, and then again in 71,831 in 2024.

When the number of full A+ students dropped in 2022 after touching 1.25 lakh in 2021, former Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty had said it was not deliberate and was consistent with the numbers in the previous years except in 2021 when focus area and double the number of questions had been provided to students for the exams held against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conceptual understanding

The changes in question paper pattern were introduced by the Left Democratic Front government in the 2025-26 session in a bid to steer children away from rote learning and direct answers to application-oriented questions that underline conceptual understanding and creativity, as has been done by boards such as the CBSE.

State Council of Educational Research and Training officials had earlier indicated that the number of students securing full A+ would come down this year.