NEW DELHI: This year, the government schools of Delhi — which have undergone a makeover — have increased their performance gap over the private schools to 9% from only 2% last year in pass percentage, a remarkable achievement. This happened despite the government being apprehensive of a dip in performance because of a crackdown on cheating “We had deputed SDMs and other district officials to keep a close watch on examination centres and ensure that cheating doesn’t take place. We knew there were several windows at exam centres where cheating was being enabled and we wanted to make sure that it did not happen under our watch,” said education minister Manish Sisodia The pass percentage of government schools this year is 88.27%, marginally less than last year’s 88.91%. However, this is 6% above the CBSE average of 82.29%. The star performers from these schools are all in the range of late 90s, giving tough competition to students from private schools.Vikas Upadhyay, a student of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Yamuna Vihar, has topped among government schools with 97%. He was a student of Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya No. 2 till Class X but shifted to the RPVV for better facilities. “The Sarvodaya school did not have good labs. I wanted to pursue a career in medical and needed my base to be strong,” he told TOI.The topper in commerce stream with 96.2%, Garvit Dang said he was happy with his result but could have done better in maths and accountancy. “These are my favourites and I will probably ask for revaluation,” said the 17-year-old, who is planning to study BCom in SRCC. An avid tennis player, Dang said he might be able to make it to the top DU colleges through the ECA quota if not just marks.Jyoti of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Nangloi, topped the arts stream with 94.8%. She is the eldest of four sisters, and her younger siblings have now found a new role model. She had recently changed her stream with an eye on civil services, having been a science student till Class X. She wants to study in Shyama Prasad Mukherji College. “The north campus colleges are far from where I live and it will be tough for me to travel there and study while preparing for the civil services exam,” she said.The private schools of Delhi have secured an average of 79.27%. Some schools like Indian School, Amity International, Mount Abu Public School, Ahlcon International School, etc did exceptionally well.Indian School, for example, secured a school average of 90% with 12 students scoring 100 marks in their subjects. A total of 163 students appeared from Mount Abu Public School, of which 22 secured over 90% aggregate. Similarly, Ahlcon International has seven students above 95% and 40 above 90%.Among the Amity International schools in Mayur Vihar, Saket and Pushp Vihar, 639 students appeared for the exam and 166 have scored above 90% with 62 students above 95%.