Purba Chatterjee with her father. Telegraph picture

Shillong, May 16: Number 1 in the Class X board examination in 2006. Now, number 1 in the HS examination — Purba Chatterjee has achieved what every student can only dream of.

Purba, a science student from St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School in Shillong, has topped the Meghalaya Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination, the results of which were declared today.

“I am surprised but very happy,” Purba said.

She is, however, far from self-satisfied. Planning to pursue her dream of taking up medical studies and pass out as a doctor, this teenager from Shillong wants to repeat her feat in the next examination too.

The HS results announced by the Meghalaya Board of School Education today threw up some big surprises with the educationally-backward West Khasi Hills district humbling the Shillong schools and overtaking the other districts in terms of pass percentage.

The district has recorded a cent per cent success in commerce and over 70 per cent in science.

East Khasi Hills — which has the maximum number of well-established and well-equipped schools — came second in the science stream recording a pass percentage of 64.84. It secured the third position in commerce with a pass percentage of 85.41 per cent.

Another educationally backward district, West Garo Hills, edged past East Khasi Hills, recording the second highest pass percentage in commerce with a success rate of 85.92 per cent. In the science stream, the district recorded a 61.15 per cent success.

While Ri Bhoi district has recorded 63.64 per cent success in science and 55.55 per cent in commerce, Jaintia Hills registered 48.79 pass per cent in science and 76 per cent in commerce.

East Garo Hills has a pass percentage of 60 in science stream. No commerce student from the district appeared in the board examinations.

It was the same situation in South Garo Hills. The district had no student from the science stream too.

In all, the state recorded a pass percentage of 52.56 in science and 84.61 in commerce. The overall pass percentage will be calculated once the results for the arts stream are announced next week.

Though the Shillong-schools lagged behind in the pass list, they made it up in the merit list, with St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School alone notching up six top positions each in the science and commerce streams.

St Edmund’s College is not far behind, securing five positions in science and four in commerce. A student from this school, Bikash Bhattacharjee topped the commerce merit list, securing 436 marks.

Don Bosco College, Tura, and KJP Synod Mihngi Higher Secondary School, Jowai, secured one position each in the science merit list.

In commerce, St Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Shillong, and St Peter’s Higher Secondary School, Shillong, has one position each.