ISC results: Thane girl aces Maharashtra merit list, also finds spot among all-India toppers

As many as 16 other students from the state have found a spot in the merit list, sharing the rank 2 and 3. Of these, 11 are from Mumbai.

A total of 3,781 students appeared for the exam across Maharashtra. The state has recorded a 99.76 per cent passing percentage.

Girls outperformed boys by scoring a pass percentage of 99.85 as compared to the latter’s 99.66 per cent. A total of 2,013 girls and 1,768 boys appeared for the examination from the state.

Despite the initial uncertainties amid the ongoing pandemic, Nandi said she remained determined to score the highest. “In a certain way, it was an unprecedented situation where we were all uncertain. But dividing the syllabus in two halves did help us. However, we did prepare the way we would have done for the annual examination. We just had to sort out the syllabus that was relevant to the current semester,” said Nandi, who likes to paint in her leisure time. She wants to pursue a career in biotechnology or microbiology research.

Another student — Dhruvi Maulik Pandya from Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School – found a spot in the third merit position with 99.25 per cent score.

Anshul Mitra from Bombay Scottish School, Mumbai, who has scored the second merit position in Maharashtra and sixth rank in All-India merit list with 99.50 per cent, aced the exams in the face of personal adversities. After losing his father to a heart attack in 2021, he went back to his hometown — Kolkata — with his mother. His school made an exception for him by allowing him to continue with his studies online.

Talking to The Indian Express, the 18-year-old from Commerce stream said, “It was a really tough year for me after losing my father so suddenly. So, I focused all my energy on my studies to fill up the void.” Crediting his teachers, school principal and friends for being his “support system”, he said, “All were just a phone call away.”

Speaking about his mother, a former full-time homemaker who started working after his father’s death, Anshul said, “Today is a special day for my mother and she shed tears of happiness.”

Sunita George, principal of Bombay Scottish School, too, is all praises for her student. “We have always been accommodating for students who need our support. As the classes were then online, we advised him (Anshul) to continue with his studies from Kolkata itself.”

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the students completely relied on online classes. Although it initially caused confusion, the schools believed that it later helped in preparation of the students, especially in cities like Mumbai by saving their travel time.

“The students didn’t need to travel for hours to reach schools which gave them and the teachers extra hours for revisions. In fact, to help our students prepare better, we held revision classes online in the mornings on the day of the examination. And Anshul’s success is an example of how technology can be leveraged to personalise learning,” said George.

Revathi Srinivasan, principal of Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, said the teachers also got creative and updated themselves about the technology. “Now, we believe that the combination of offline-online classes holds the key to future studies. Also, we had finished the syllabus earlier and all our projects were highly-research based which taught the students beyond their textbooks,” she said.