The excellent Madhyamik Examination results this year were not unattended by their share of anxiety. Students who had fared much better than the average, along with their guardians, expressed their anguish at the inevitable unavailability of seats in desired streams and institutions, and they did so at the gates of a number of top city high schools.

Shayon Ghosh of Taltala Boys’ School scored 70.3 per cent and was ecstatic on Thursday when he learnt about his results. Barely 24 hours later, he wore an anxious frown. “I was sure I would be able to migrate to a good institution like St Lawrence School or South Point School. But if so many students have scored such high marks, it is going to be very difficult to carry on with the pure science subjects I want to pursue for my higher studies if I expect a seat at one of the top schools in the city,” Shayon said.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the state government is basking in the glory of the performance of the successful Madhyamik examinees, and not without cause. 71.64 per cent of the 5,91,146 candidates cleared the examinations this year, beating even last year’s 70.45 per cent.

This time around, 22,127 candidates secured star marks by scoring more than 75 per cent in the 800-mark examination. The rat race for seats in the science stream in the city’s ‘best’ institutions has already begun with students and parents frantically trying every trick in the trade to beat the herd. While the star candidates lend their lustre to the government and the board, those meritorious students who notched up a first division, scoring above 60 per cent in the examinations, found to their dismay that their ranks had swelled beyond all reckoning. The number of first division candidates stands at a staggering 92,807. Of these, the 70,680 who fell short of the star figures can definitely not be called mediocre by any standard. However, it is this chunk of bright students who feel cheated since the number of seats in the much-sought-after science stream in the best institutions in Calcutta is very limited.

Students like Shayon feel they will have to depend on the quota system or will have to approach powerful people for ‘recommendation letters’.