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Updated: May 08, 2019 07:15 IST

When the CBSE announced the Class 10 examination results on Monday, the Singh household in Wazirabad saw a steady stream of visitors to congratulate the family after 16-year-old Dhanjot scored 98.6%.

A phone call changed that stream to a deluge. That phone call was from Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who informed that Dhanjot was the highest among government school students.

“We started celebrating after that call. He congratulated me for scoring 493 (out of 500),” said Dhanjot Singh, a student of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya. However, she had a grouse.

“I had aimed for at least 497. I would have been happier if I managed to score that. But I was lucky to score 493.”

Ask her about her experience of studying in Delhi government schools, Dhanjot said her teachers paid individual attention and offered remedial classes to those who needed it.

“I can text them with questions at 2 am and they would respond,” said the teenager who promotes self-study over coaching classes. Her father, a criminal lawyer, too stressed upon the importance of promoting public-funded education to counter “superiority complex” among some students studying in private sector.

Dhanjot said she would chart a course to study medicine, partly due to her father being diagnosed with a live illness just a month before her examinations.

“There should be at least one doctor in the family,” she said, adding that the civil services too had piqued her interest.

Shalu Tiwari, resident of Mayur Vihar Phase III, who was the second topper scoring 97.8%, studied in a local private school till class 5 before moving on to Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Kondli.

About her school, the medical aspirant said there has been “some improvement” over the years.

“Toilets are cleaner. In classes 7 and 8, we used to sit outside classrooms and during heavy wind, the boards used to fall on the floor,” she said with a laugh. “We started sitting inside classrooms in class 9 and 10.”

Sonia Vihar resident Arvita Shukla too scored 489. She hoped to pursue commerce and then go for chartered accountancy and appear for civil services examination.

The student of Shaheed Amir Chand Sarvodaya Vidhyalaya Sham Nath Marg said she was unwell during the examinations and was not expecting more than 90% but was giddy with delight when she got a call from education minister Sisodia, who dialled all Delhi government school toppers and congratulated the students and their families.

Fourth topper Shreya Maurya from RPVV Hari Nagar, who scored 488, said the same.

“My parents were so happy to speak to such a big personality for the first time,” she said adding that she aspires to be a government servant and serve the nation.

Of the 1,66,167 government school students that appeared for the Class 10 exams, 118, 936 (71.58%) passed which was an improvement of 2.68 percentage points from last year.

The pass percentage of girls in Delhi government school was 74.29%, higher than last year’s 69.7%, while that of boys’ was 68.51%, an improvement from 67.92% last year.