Farmer’s son aces inter

Ranchi: Mukesh Ranjan Mahato of SSNMS Inter College in Dhanbad topped the intermediate science examination by scoring 450 out of 500 marks.
The matriculation and intermediate science and commerce result of the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) was declared on Friday.
Mukesh's father, Arun Kumar Mahato, is a farmer in Dhanbad and his mother a homemaker.
"I did not take tuition, but successfully cleared JEE (mains).Topping the board exam is the icing on the cake," said Mahato, who wants to pursue a career in nautical engineering from "one of the IITs".
He added that lessons taught in the classroom and revision at home was enough for him.
"I have already cleared JEE (mains) and now preparing for JEE advance," said Mahato.
Atleast 49,286 students appeared for the intermediate commerce exam, of which 31,023 students passed and 6,335 scored first division marks.
However, the pass percentage reported a dip this year as compared to 2015.
The matriculation pass percentage was 71.20%, while the pass percentage for intermediate science and commerce was 64.57% and 74.18% respectively.
"Strict vigilance ensured malpractice-free examinations. This could be a reason for the dip in pass percentage."
In the matriculation exam, the pass percentage among boys (70.036%) was higher than the pass percentage among girls (65.038%).
However, girls outshone boys in the intermediate examination with 59.90% of girls and 57.04% of boys successfully completing intermediate science with 57.79% of boys and 71.92 % of girls passing intermediate commerce.
The state topper of intermediate commerce was Monalisa Sarkar of Ursuline Inter College, Ranchi with 442 marks.
Hazaribag notched up the highest pass percentage (79.87%) in matriculation. Pamu was the best-performing district in intermediate science with an 85.37% percentage.
In intermediate commerce, Koderma was the best performing district with a 78.89% pass percentage.