HSC top scorers sore over missed mention

Updated on: Thursday, June 09, 2011

A day after the state education board announced subject-wise HSC toppers, students and parents openly expressed their disapproval of the new system of announcing subject toppers. While the board has felicitated only one student for scoring a perfect 100 in mathematics, students from at least two other colleges are sore over their names not even finding a mention for the same feat.

“I checked with the board office, but my name was not mentioned anywhere in the list. Nobody could explain the reason behind this,” said Sanket Keni, a student of Nagindas Khandwala College of Commerce, Science and Arts. The fact that Keni also scored 92.8% in the science stream and a perfect 100 in mathematics but still wasn’t considered a topper didn’t go down well with him and his family. A similar controversy occured last year too, after the board abolished the overall topper system and began the practice of naming only subject toppers.

However, the board’s contention is that when considering a student’s performance in one subject to name the topper, it also factors in his/ her aggregate total of all subjects. “There are a lot of students who score the same marks, so we have to depend on the aggregate total of the students to consider one topper,” said Ujjwaladevi Patil, the board chairperson, from Pune. But Dhaval Gala, a student of SIES College of Commerce and Economics, another student to score 100 in mathematics, was also unhappy. “What’s the point of scoring well in subjects when it is not considered in the end?” asked Gala. He added that this system of naming ‘subject toppers’ instead of ‘overall toppers’ has not been helping students in any way.

“Instead, they should scrap this system too. This way, no student will have any issue. Individual colleges can then felicitate their own students,” Dhaval added. Meanwhile, for 17-year-old Sriranjani Sriram, scoring a perfect 200 in computer science and also topping her college failed to make her happy because the board did not even mention the topper for this particular subject. “Her aggregate is also really good and it seems to be better than others in several colleges also. Still, she was not felicitated,” added her father.

However, state board secretary, Ravindra Bhise told TOI, “There are many subjects under the HSC board but the toppers in only those subjects for whom NGOs or other individuals were willing to donate cash prizes were announced by the board. Students should not get disheartened by this. Everybody is a winner.”

Times View

The state education board’s commendable measure ending announcement of toppers has been negated by the felicitation of ‘subject toppers’. The remnants of a system it demolished last year have since created more controversy, as the subject-toppers are based on a skewed logic of aggregate scores. A student’s score in say, mathematics, can’t be a function of his total in all subjects. Nor can a few bask in the accolades while the rest are denied the same in the name of easing ‘marks-related stress’.

HSC top scorers sore over missed mention

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