While 7,64,440 students had registered for the examination, 7,55,324 appeared for the exam. Around 90 per cent of the students who appeared for the examination passed.
Chiranjeev Bhattacharya, President, West Bengal Higher Secondary Education Council, said, “Around 9,000 students did not appear for the examination. It would be for various reasons and the same will be looked into.”
As per the board officials, the results would have been published at least 10 days before, however, due to some technical issues, it could not be done.
Meet the toppers
As many as 58 students, 35 boys and 23 girls, from 15 districts secured the top 10 ranks.
Among the 58 who ranked among the top 10, as many as 13 are from Hooghly, nine from Bankura, seven from South 24 Parganas, five from Kolkata, four each from East Burdwan and East Medinipur and three each from Cooch Behar and Malda.
Among girls, Pratichi Talukder and Sneha Ghosh secured the first rank with both scoring 493 out of 500. Overall, both of them ranked 4th. Talukder is a student of Sunithi Academy in Cooch Behar and Ghosh is a student of the Krishnabhavini Nari Shiksha Mandir in Chandannagar.
Among boys, Abhik Das held the rank one. A Student of McWilliam Higher Secondary School, Alipurduar, Das has secured 496 marks or 99.2 percent. “I want to research in Astrophysics and become a scientist. I stood 4th in Madhyamik. I feel happy. I had studied rigorously but never maintained any fixed hours,” said Das.
Soumyadeep Saha, a student of the Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission, stood second in the state and secured 495 marks. Abhishek Gupta held the third rank with 494 marks. Gupta is a student of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Vidyamandir, Malda.
“I want to study statistics and I always wanted to do so. If everyone becomes doctors, who will be a patient? I have an interest in mathematics and I am aiming for the Indian Statistical Institute. At our mission school, we don’t get to use mobile phones every day. We go home after five to six days of classes so once you are not addicted to mobile phones, the focus is better,” said Saha.
The pass percentage in the districts
As far as the pass percentage is concerned, East Medinipur is ahead of the rest of the districts with 95.77 per cent. Meanwhile, Kalimpong has recorded a 92.51 per cent pass percentage and Kolkata clocked 92.13 per cent.
West Medinipur saw a 92.78 percent pass percentage while South 24 Parganas saw 92.87 per cent. North 24 Parganas got 92.05 per cent and Hooghly saw a pass percentage of 91.06 per cent. Around 86.90 per cent of minority students passed the examination. This year, 1,87,924 minority candidates appeared for the higher secondary examination.