Mohan Lal Oroan: Badge of honour

Ranchi, Feb 29: Netarhat Boys’ School is back to where it belongs — the top. With the Jharkhand Academic Council announcing the merit list for the 2003 examination on Friday, it is clear that the Netarhat boys have bounced back. The school has bagged the top 23 positions in the secondary examination.

Adding yet another feather on its cap, unified Bihar’s most prestigious boys’ gurukul has repeated its earlier feat of sending the third tribal boy — Mohan Lal Oraon — to the top 10 merit list. Suryatapar Munda, an NRI settled in Singapore, stood 5th in 1981 and Mohan Kumar Pingua ranked 9th in 1985. Pingua is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre.

With Kunaal Nath securing the maximum 449 marks, Netarhat School has regained its lost glory, which was wrested for the first time in its history by a girl— Divya Kumari of Hazaribagh-based Indira Gandhi Residential School in 2002. This year’s result makes up for the dismal performance of 2002. Vikrant Kumar, who scored 509, had missed the top slot by one mark, but shared the number two slot with two girls — Achila Kumari of S.S. Doranda Girls’ High School, Ranchi and Kumari Ruchi of Indira Gandhi School, Hazaribagh. It was the worst session for the prestigious school, which could get only eight students on the list of top 10 comprising 23 candidates. Besides Vikrant, three students shared the number three slots, one stood 6th, two seventh and one 10th. Netarhat School principal Binod Kumar Karna said, “We suffered many setbacks in the 2002 session. But now we have regained the lost glory.” Close on Kunaal’s heels are Harsh Mohan and Pranav Prakash, who have bagged the second position with 432 marks each. They are followed by Kumar Sundaram (431marks), Amit Kumar, Mayank Kaushal and Mayank Kumar, who are on number four positions with 430 marks. The fifth position is shared by Chandan Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Mritunjay Kumar, Md Khaliqqur Rahman and Prashant Gaurav, who have all scored 428 marks each.

Son of P.C. Nath, an X-Ray technician at Sadar Hospital, Biharsharif, Kunaal is youngest of the three siblings. Two of his elder sisters are preparing for engineering and the medical entrance examination while he himself is preparing for medical entrance tests.

The sense of pride is palpable among students — both old and the existing. Ex-students like home secretary J.B.Tubid or former Ranchi University vice-chancellor K.K. Nag feel their school has seldom allowed outsiders to make forays into the merit list. Nag does not remember if any tribal ever made it to the top 10. But retired IAS official and ex-student (1961 batch) Narendra Bhagat says Suryatapar Munda came fifth in 1981. “He was the first tribal boy,” Bhagat said. The school principal confirms it. The gap with the women wing, which has beaten the Netarhat boys only once, remains wide this time with topper Aryama scoring 388.