Bagging the top honours

Subham Kumar Agarwal didn’t have any target. Even during the examination, all he wanted was to do well. “The thought that I need to top didn’t cross my mind,” said Subham from St Joseph’s School, Bhaktinagar, in Darjeeling district. Subham is one of the five toppers in the ISC 12th results, who scored 399 out of 400.

Manya Gupta from the Heritage School in Kolkata also scored a remarkable 99.75 percent. While Subham, a resident of Goshala More in Siliguri, wants to pursue law, Manya is interested in psychology and has already applied to foreign universities. “I didn’t realise that I was the all-India topper till others told me,” said Manya.

Meanwhile, six students from Bengal clinched the second position in ISC 2023. From Sidharth Kumar Dugar of MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth Howrah, Subhashree Sahoo and Aishi Gangopadhyay of GD Birla Centre for Education, Kolkata, to Anoushka Samanta of Adamas International School, Belgharia, Anusa Maiti of Pratt Memorial School, Kolkata and Antara Banerjee of Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata scored 99.5 percent. Ten students secured the third rank from the state.

Subhashree gives credit to her father for making sure she develops a liking for mathematics from class VI. “My father has played an important role in my success and my mother kept me away from distraction,” said the GD Birla Centre for Education student, who likes outdoor sports.

For Sidharth, the feeling cannot be expressed in words. “It feels unreal. Some moments in life are precious. This is surely one of them,” he said.

West Bengal outshone other states in ICSE results 2023 too. Sambit Mukherjee, a student of Burdwan’s St Xavier’s School scored 499 out of 500 and bagged the first position in the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). He is among the nine students in India who became ICSE toppers. The other eight are from Jamshedpur, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Thane, Malad East and Agra.

With 99.8 percent marks, Sambit wants to enrol in one of the IITs and become a computer engineer. His father, Dr Manoj Mukherjee is a scientist, and his mother, a school teacher. Apratim Gangopadhyay from the Heritage School, Kolkata, topped his school with 99.4 percent marks. Twenty-two students from Bengal have secured the top three positions in the ICSE examination.

Shilajit Ghosh and Govind Sarda of St. Michael’s School in Siliguri secured third position in Bengal and seventh in all India in ICSE. Both got 497 marks out of 500. Presently, Shilajit is in Delhi and is preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

According to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), a total of 41,506 students from 418 schools in Bengal appeared for the ICSE examination this year. The pass percentage among the students from Bengal is 98.71 percent in the ICSE exam and 96.88 percent in ISC.

Calcutta Boys’ School students Rudraneel Shee bagged 99.2 percent and Rik Chakraborty secured 99 percent to top the school. From DPS, Megacity, Samridhi Todi and Shreeparna Mukherjee clinched 99 percent marks. Salt Lake CA School’s Sirsho Saha secured 99 percent, and three others — Aishee Lahiri, Nishat Raisa and Prithika Banerjee — bagged 98.8 percent marks. Monu Kumar Yadav clinched 99.2 percent to top his school MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth.

Students from Bengal also performed exceedingly well in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class X and XII examinations. 303 students secured 90 percent and above and 635 students scored above 80 percent in Delhi Public School Ruby Park. Aranya Haldar of Commerce scored the highest in the school with 99 percent. She wants to become a chartered accountant. Arjoe Basak of Science secured 98.8 percent. Basak who got 99.86 percentile in JEE Main wants to pursue computer science from a top IIT. Rohini Sarkar of Arts scored 99 percent to top her school, TIGPS, Hooghly, in CBSE results 2023. She is followed by Adrika Sinharay from the Science stream with 97.2 percent. A total of 14 students secured full marks in home science and four students bagged full marks in mathematics. Debanjan Banerjee scored 98.4 in his class X CBSE exam to top his school.