54 students share top 10 ranks

KOLKATA: East Midnapore scored over other districts once again in this year's Madhyamik examinations, the results of which were annouced on Thursday. With a pass percentage of 95.04, the district managed to beat Kolkata, which had a pass percentage of 90.86, by a significant margin. South 24-Parganas, with a pass percentage of 90.06, narrowly missed the second spot. As many as 54 students - four among them from Kolkata - made it to the top 10 list this year.
Interestingly, the number of girl candidates increased more than three times this year. While the number of male candidates increased by 4,806, the number of female candidates soared by 13,732. "This shows that the trend of sending girls to school is on the rise. In fact, the number of female candidates was more than male examinees this year," said Kalyanmoy Ganguly, administrator of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.
However, unlike in CBSE and ICSE, where girls scored past boys, the success percentage of girls in Madhyamik was not as high as that of the boys. But again, Muslim girls have managed to score more than the boys. "This is a remarkable year as Muslim girls outshone boys and even outnumbered them. This year, we had 1,42,415 Muslim girls as compared to 98,774 boys," Ganguly added.
Among the physically challenged, the success rate stood at 86.99%. Around 89.66% of candidates who appeared from correctional homes managed to scrape through.
This year, the examinations commenced on February 24 and all compulsory subjects ended on March 6. The total number of enrolled candidates was 10,52,755.
Congratulating all successful students, education minister Bratya Basu said, "The blessings of chief minister Mamata Banerjee will remain with every student. I congratulate the examinees and wish them luck to achieve great heights in life."
Though 54 students shared top 10 ranks this year, the pole position was bagged by one - Arnab Mallick who appeared from Kamarpukur Ramkrishna Mission Multipurpose School. His score is 682. Aniruddha Sarkar of Katwa Kashiram Das Institution stood second by scoring 681. The third position, however, was shared by Pritam Das of Islampur High School in North Dinajpur and Bithi Mondal of Basirhat Harimohan Dalal Girls High School. Both scored 680. Bithi topped the examination among girls.
In the Madhyamik examination, first position was bagged by Arnab Mallick from Kamarpukur Ramkrishna Mission Multipurpose School. His score is 682. A die hard fan of Sherlock Holmes and William Shakespeare, Arnab prefers to while out his time more with the books than on the field. With only two private teachers - one for English and one for mathematics, this aspiring doctor said, "I didn't read too much but whatever I did I did it very attentively. I followed the test Papers closely and my father along with my school teachers helped me to a great extent. Without their help I would not have been able to achieve this feat". Arnab's father who was ecstatic about his son's success added, "He was good in studies from his childhood but I never dreamt that he would stand first among so many students in Madhyamik examination. I am really proud of my son".
The second position in the merit list was bagged by Aniruddha Sarkar of Katwa Kashiram Das Institution in Burdwan district with 681. Son of a professor at Bongaon College, Aniruddha came out in flying colours. Aniruddha's success points out that a student can dream to achieve good results with hardly any private tuition. "I always felt that only studying cannot give you proper result. If one wants to do well at the highest level he or she should have overall understanding and concept about the subjects and so read many books apart from y syllabus," Aniruddha said.
Aniruddha toeing his father's path wants be a professor in future. Expecting a good result after giving satisfactory examination, Sarkar said, "I knew that I would do well but I never felt that I would make a rank among so many examinees".
The third position was bagged jointly by Pritam Das of Islampur High School in North Dinajpur and Bithi Mondal of Basirhat Harimohan Dalal Girls High School who scored 680. Bithi also topped the examination among girls.
When Pritam ranked seventh in the Test examination in school with just 651 marks it was blow to him. Without being depressed this first boy of Islampur High School decided to fight back and his resolve proved his worth in the Madhyamik. His long hours in studying did not disappoint him and the gritty boy secured the third position in Madhyamik examination. "I was confident of getting good marks here but the rank was beyond imagination", said Pritam. Fond of science since childhood Pritam dreamed of being a scientist in future. He had altogether seven teachers for different subjects but credit of such a brilliant result "goes entirely to my father", he claimed. Becoming celebrity all on a sudden has certainly embarrassed Pritam, who loves to watch and play cricket in his leisure time.
Bithi Mondal, the topper among girls is very unassuming who prefers to stay more within herself. Apparently shy, this 16 year old teenager said, "I like to study but I don't have any fixed determination. I studied 12 to 13 hours a day but I never thought that it would give me such a huge return. I have never been insincere and I was committed to securing good marks". With five private tutors and overwhelming help from the school teachers, Bithi has no favourite subject as such. "I like everything. Sometimes I preferred to do sums and when I didn't like anything I used to read poems," Bithi said.
The Madhyamik Board awarded ranks to 54 students who featured among the top 10 positions. "The number of toppers who bagged ranks within the top ten has increased over last year," the board administrator said.