New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) Students from the Gulf region have outperformed their India counterparts in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams for Class 10, the results of which were declared Friday.

As many as 12,104 of the total 12,255 candidates in the Gulf became eligible for CBSE certificate, which announced this year’s results under a new grading system.

According to CBSE spokesperson Rama Sharma, 98.77 percent students in the Gulf region have been declared eligible for the certificate, as compared to 89.28 percent in India.

A total of 97.66 percent students in the Gulf had passed the exam in 2009.

This year, a total of 886,338 students took the class 10 board exams in India and abroad.

Girls performed better than boys in the Gulf countries as well with 99.29 percent of girls set to get the qualifying certificate as compared to 98.25 percent boys.

The class 10 exams were conducted for students of 109 schools at 41 centres in various Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.

The Gulf region is home to a 4.5 million-strong Indian diaspora.

Besides the Gulf, 98.62 percent students got qualifying certificate in other countries, an increase of 1.21 percent from last year.

Students have been given grades instead of percentages this year. The grades are given on a nine-point scale ranging from A1 (excellent) to E2 (dissatisfactory), D being the minimum pass grade.