CBSE Class 12 result: How Chandigarh cracked the code

The city has stunned everyone with three of its students featuring on the top of the list in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 board examinations.

DAV School student Bhoomi Sawant, a science student, scored 99.4% marks to emerge as the all-India second topper. Bhavan Vidyalaya students Mannat Luthra and Aditya Jain jointly bagged the third rank, scoring 99.2% in commerce. The school hasn’t just stopped there.

“CBSE called up to say that our school has four out of top seven toppers in the country,” school principal Vaneeta Arora told HT.

While this may have come as a surprise, the tiny union territory has always done well in academics. For instance, the average marks secured by Bhavan Vidyalaya students this year are 92% as against 91% last year. And that marginal improvement has made a huge difference.

“We’ve been working hard at it and so have been other schools,” says Arora, on why the city has done so well this time. Principals say there’s been a cutthroat competition among schools in the city and it’s only been growing to get a higher share of the toppers.

An educationist, SK Marriya, attributes the city’s success to the quality of teaching.

“The city’s teachers mainly come with public school background and relate to the students in a much better way,” says Marriya, the regional director of the DAV managing committee. “I’ve seen over decades that their skills are much better than others in the region and it’s improving all the time,” adds Marriya.

Some analysts say that city’s small size works to its advantage as students use their time saved on commuting on their studies.