Jamshedpur: Dhanbad Delhi Public School's Maitree Shandilya who scored 99.2 per cent "guided by her grandfather" became Jharkhand state topper in CBSE Class X board exams, whose results were declared on Tuesday, while the overall the state pass percentage of 87.43 was a little higher than the national 86.70 per cent.
The CBSE Class X board exams, that reverted to its older pattern after an eight-year gap - it had in the interim introduced cumulative grade point average that awarded grades instead of marks - saw 55,926 students appearing from 363 schools in Jharkhand between March 5 and April 4.
As is the trend nationally, girls here performed better than boys. The pass percentage was 89.30 for girls and 87.03 per cent for boys.
The state toppers this year were from Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Ranchi.
Close on the heels of Dhanbad's Maitree (99.2), came Jamshedpur's Jasmine Saha of DAV Public School, Bistupur, and Bokaro's Pratik Mishra also from DAV Public School, Swang, sharing second spot with 98.8 per cent. Aastha with 98.6 per cent from DPS, SAIL Township, Ranchi, and Surbhi Goyal from DPS, Dhanbad, are tied at third spot with 98.6 per cent.
Asked, Maitree said the wonderful feeling had not fully sunk in. "I studied with a plan based on guidelines from my grandfather U.C. Jha in Patna who is a retired income tax commissioner. He guided me and this happened," said the topper.
Marks of many students in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Bokaro hovered between 96 and 98 per cent.
Various websites also guided students the way to calculate their CGPA although it wasn't essential.
In Ranchi, principal of DAV Public School, Bariatu, V.K. Singh said results had been better than expected. "Ninety per cent is not a tough goal. Either students have performed very well or the evaluation has been different. In fact, students who did not do that well in internal assessments scored above 80 per cent in the board. The real test will begin in Class XI. But, we are happy with the percentage system," Singh said.
In Jamshedpur, principal of DAV Public School Bistupur, Pragya Singh, said the results made her, her teachers and school staff "exuberant". "Every one is so happy with the results. We got 100 per cent results with 26 students scoring above 95 per cent. In fact, the school has scored an impressive average marks of 84.6 per cent this CBSE Class X exam," Singh said.
The CBSE's tele-counselling for students and parents will continue till the next 15 days from 8am to 10pm on all days. About 69 expert volunteers including principals, trained counsellors and special educators from CBSE will be available on toll-free number 1800118004.
CBSE will also give digital marksheets at https://digilocker.gov.in.
There are about 42 CBSE schools in Dhanbad followed by Ranchi with 41, Bokaro with 36 and Jamshedpur (including Seraikela-Kharsawan) 35, and the rest across the state.
In all, over 16 lakh students appeared for the exam this year, marred by controversy with question paper leaks being reported from Delhi-NCR and Jharkhand.
Additional reporting by Raj Kumar and Praduman Choubey
