Minutes after the ICSE class X results were declared on Wednesday afternoon, Karthick Sriram M., a student of Chettinad Hari Shree Vidyalayam, found out he had topped his school.
But it was only in the evening he was informed he had stood first in the State with 98.2 per cent.
According to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), Karthick is also among the 22 students who share the third rank in the country.
“I worked hard and was expecting to do quite well. I was anxious about my marks in Tamil, but scored 98 per cent,” said Karthick, who wants to pursue medicine. Karthick scored a centum in computer applications and 99 in mathematics and history, civics and geography.
“With 51 students, this has been our biggest batch so far, and Karthick is our first State ranker. We are extremely happy,” said Shobana Balaji, academic coordinator of the school.
This year, 2,177 students from 54 schools secured a pass percentage of 99.59 in Tamil Nadu, compared with 1,902 students from 49 schools last year, according to CISCE.
Tamil Nadu’s pass percentage stood at 99.79 per cent last year. With 99.59 per cent this year, the southern region recorded the highest pass percentage in the country, once again.
The region also had the highest percentage of girls who appeared for the examinations, with 49.2 per cent of the students being girls, according to CISCE.
City schools too had a strong showing in the ICSE class X examinations. Omana Thomas, principal, Sishya School, said 86 students from the school appeared for the examination, and they had good scores in mathematics, among other subjects.
At the Grove School, correspondent Prashanth Krishna said they had sent their third batch for the examination, and most of them had scored above 80 per cent.
“We got 100 per cent results, and the school’s highest is 92.2 per cent,” said Vasanthi Vishwanathan, vice-principal, Vaels Billabong High International School.
Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of CISCE, said the increase in the number of toppers in the country indicated improved performance. “There are four first-rankers, nine second-rankers and 22 third-rankers in the country,” he said.
