A student of St Joseph’s Convent High School checks her ISC result at the institute in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Eighteen-year-old Arvind Kumar battled the odds to secure the second highest percentage in the commerce stream from Don Bosco Academy in the ISC examination, results of which were declared on Saturday.

Arvind does not believe in principles but in action. The youth from Danapur, who lost his father seven years ago, was suspended from school for a month-and-a-half. That he took things in stride and his strong determination helped him clinch 85 per cent marks against the school topper Saurabh Bora’s (from the same stream) 92 per cent. There is not much difference between the third school topper Vijay Mittal from the science stream and that of Arvind. Vijay has secured 88 per cent, while the second topper, Jayant Priyadarshi, bagged 90 per cent marks.

Giving credit to school principal Mary Alphonsa, Arvind said: “Had she not shown patience and kept me in the school, I would have been elsewhere. She told me to do much better and prove myself.”

Alphonsa said: “I am happy to hear this. I told him to show everyone that he was not only notorious but he was good in studies too.”

Arvind said: “I had to take a retest of a paper during send-up. I had missed the paper and was tensed. Just before my board examination, I lost my grandfather and had to go through the rituals. It was not that easy. When I sat down to study, my father’s memories came rushing back and I missed him. He would have been happy seeing me studying so hard for the boards.” Arvind, who has three brothers, said: “I give the credit for the changes in me to my mother Baby Devi and my family. Uncle Sujeet Kumar too supported us in our studies.”

Arvind has set an example for others.

The girls of St Joseph’s Convent High School have also fared well. While Don Bosco Academy does not have arts stream, St Joseph’s offers all — science, arts and commerce.

Prasansha Agrawal from the school’s commerce stream topped with 97.75 per cent marks, whereas the second position saw a tie between Maryam Kazmi and Prachi Riya, both of whom got 94.75 per cent. Next came Namrata Boobna with 94.5 per cent. In the science stream, Aditi Kumari, Smriti Yadav and Maria Siddique secured 92.25, 91.75 and 87.5 per cent marks respectively. The arts stream saw Munteha Fatma, Huma Azmi and Ansha Sinha bagging 92.25, 91.25 and 90.5 per cent marks respectively.

The ISC results were to be declared at 3pm on Saturday but the suspense prevailed till Sunday since the students and parents had to face problems in accessing the website.

A.G. de Rozario, the director of Don Bosco Academy and the Patna convener of Council for The Indian School Certificate Examinations, said: “It seemed that the website had crashed. Sometimes, students see the results individually but the schools could not see it collectively. But that also failed after some time. Late on Saturday evening, things were back to normal. The school authorities were tensed too. At least 560 students appeared for the ISC examination from Patna this year.”