West Bengal: Districts steal the show, only 4 from Kolkata on list of top 10 Higher Secondary scorers

KOLKATA: Rumana Sultana of Kandi Raja Manindra Chandra Girls School, Murshidabad missed the perfect 500-score by just a mark, otherwise she has stunned everyone by not only topping the Higher Secondary examination this year but also by becoming the first girl from a minority community ever to top the HS exam. She scored 100 in all subjects except for physics. This is not her first hall of fame. She had stood fifth in Madhyamik in 2019 from the same school. Her father is a headmaster and mother a schoolteacher. Rumana wants to study in IISc Bangalore.
The Council has not published any merit list this year, following last year’s trend. Since there was no written examination and since the marks were drawn up on the basis of a formula, the Council said that it would be unfair to draw up a merit list. It announced that there were 86 candidates on the top 10 scorers’ list but their names were not officially announced.
Except for four names from the city, the rest of the positions have been bagged by candidates from the districts. Bankura stole the show with 25 candidates in the top 10 bracket. Of them, 11 were from Bankura Banga Vidyalaya. Soutik Kundu and classmate Sakhi Kundu have bagged the second position with a score of 498 from this school. “I want to be a doctor and am preparing for the NEET exams,” Soutik, who loves cricket, said.

Two fifth positions were bagged by students of Hindu School — Ankan Maiti an Kousajit Dutta. Ankan wants to be a doctor and is preparing for his NEET exams. Though just five marks short of the perfect score, he is a tad unhappy. “Had it been a written exam my potential would have been tested properly,” said Ankan who is an amateur photographer. Kousajit is a swimmer and also an elocutionist. He admits that he is not a bookworm and the early morning and night shifts for study are enough for him. “I want to be a paramedic or an agriculturist, but let’s see what the future has in store for me,” he said beaming with a bouquet that CM Mamata Banerjee had sent to him, along with all the top scorers.
Classmates Soumendranath Biswas with 492 and Sudipto Bag with 491 have bagged the eighth and ninth highest marks from Kalna Maharaja’s High School in East Burdwan
Two more students from the city on the list are from Pathfinder HS Public School, Jodhpur Park. Upayan Chatterjee with 491 is ninth on the list and Diyala Dey with 490 is in the top tenth scorers’ position.
Suparna Sahoo with 491 is also in the top ninth score. She is from Aligunj Rishi Rajnarayan Balika Vidyalaya.
North 24 Parganas also put up a stellar performance by giving 17 candidates in the top 10 bracket.
(Inputs by Sukumar Mahato, Falguni Banerjee, Md Asif and Sujoy Khanra)