Kolkata: One-hundred and thirty-one students made it to the Top 10 list of Madhyamik this year—the highest in recent years—with Avirup Bhadra from Sarada Vidyamandir (Raiganj) High School bagging the first position with 698 marks (99.7%). Madhyamik results were announced on Friday. Last year, the top 10 ranks were shared by 66 students. This year’s pass percentage of the state board class 10 exams rose marginally from 86.6% last year to 86.8% as 8,06,015 of 9,53,753 students cleared the exam. More girls appeared for the exams than boys but the success rate among girls (84.5%) was lower than boys’, at 89.5%. Though second language, maths and physical science scores declined, students scored above 90% more in geography, life science, history.The top 10 positions are shared by 14 students from North Dinajpur, including Bhadra, 23 from East Midnapore, 11 from South 24 Parganas— seven of them from RKM Narendrapur —nine from Purulia, eight from North 24 Parganas, 14 from Bankura, nine from Hooghly, seven from Cooch Behar, six from Birbhum, five from Malda, five from East Burdwan, four from Howrah, three from Nadia, three from South Dinajpur, three from West Midnapore, three from Murshidabad, two from Alipurduar, one from West Burdwan and one from Jhargram. But none from Kolkata district was among the 131, eliciting surprise from the heads of prominent city schools. Brushing aside a possibility of bias against Kolkata students, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education president Ramanuj Ganguly maintained the results were entirely based on performance. “We cater to a wide range of students, many of them first-generation learners. It will be unfair to compare them with those of other boards, which gives quite a few high-scorers from Kolkata,” he said. “We don’t have MCQs, a staple in other board papers.”But teachers at Kolkata state schools highlighted teaching-learning and teaching-question pattern gaps. West Bengal Govt School Teachers’ Association general secretary Saugata Basu said, “This time, questions in several subjects, including life science and maths, were a bit difficult as quite a few were application based. But students hardly practise such questions in class. Teacher shortage and the fewer number of teaching days due to long vacations also had an impact.“Hindu School headmaster Subhrajit Dutta blamed dependence on technology, especially AI for the declining number of high-scorers from the city. Trying to find a solution, Jadavpur Vidyapith headmaster Partha Pratim Baidya felt more teacher orientation programmes could change this trend. “The question pattern is changing everywhere, so we need to change our mindset, too, and prepare students accordingly. The practice was not enough for the number of application-based questions this year.” Among those who scored 90% and above were 129 of 134 students of RKM Narendrapur, 10 of 166 at Jadavpur Vidyapith, 36 of 194 at Patha Bhavan, 18 of 102 at Jodhpur Park Boys’ and 26 out of 216 from Scottish Church Collegiate School. Hindu School and Ballygunge Govt had only four of 126 students who scored 90% and above and seven of 101 respectively. RKM Narendrapur headmaster Swami Ishteshananda said, “We focus on practice and our students sit for tests. It helps them score well.”
