education

Updated: May 04, 2019 12:28 IST

Friday started on an unforgettable note for Sana, the daughter of a cook at the Walled City’s iconic Al Jawahar restaurant. She got a call from Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s deputy chief minister and education minister, congratulating her for topping the Class 12 school-leaving examination across the city’s government schools.

The 17-year-old humanities student from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Chandni Chowk scored 97.6% overall and scored a perfect 100 in history. “I received a call early in the morning, saying the minister wanted to speak to me. I thought it was a prank call. I believed it only after I heard him speaking!” she said.

A bright student right through school, Sana never wanted to switch to a private institution. “There were instances when my friends in the neighbourhood advised me to switch to a private school. They used to say I cannot do well in life after studying in a government school. But the private schools were expensive for us. I did not care about the suggestions and worked hard. I did not even take tuitions,” said Sana, who wants to be an IAS officer.

“First. I want to pursue BA (Honours) in Political Science from a top Delhi University college, and then will prepare for the civil services exam,” she said.

Sana’s father Niazuddin, whose secret twist to the butter chicken, is renowned across the city, cooked for the family on Friday as a special treat. “My father loves to cook for us on big occasions,” Sana said. “He has always encouraged me and my four siblings to work hard. Even my sister had topped her school in Class 12 in 2017.”

Niazuddin, who has been working at the Old Delhi restaurant for the last 35 years, said he takes care of its kitchen along with assisting the head chef who cooks the iconic delicacies, including the butter chicken. “I am overwhelmed today. Despite all odds, my daughter has made us all proud,” he said.

Gyan Kaur, 17, a student of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Ramesh Nagar, got the second rank across Delhi government schools, scoring 97%. Kaur’s father works in a cement company. She scored a perfect 100 in Economics and wants to pursue Political Science (Honours) from Lady Shri Ram College.

The topper in the Commerce stream across the Delhi government schools is Pooja Singh, whose parents have hearing and speech disabilities. A student of Government Senior Secondary School in Sant Nagar, she got 481 marks out of 500. Her father works in Delhi University as a staffer. “I want to pursue my career in finance,” she said.

Sisodia said on Friday that the Class 12 results were “unprecedented”, with the overall pass percentage of Delhi government schools 94. 24% in the Central Board of Secondary Education exam. “The results could have been better if the Delhi government was given land to build more schools. But our teachers and students worked very hard to make it possible. Even the results of our evening shift schools have improved to 89.3% from last year’s 83%,” he said.

The results have improved even as the number of students appearing in the Class 12 exam rose from 112,826 last year to 129,917 in 2019.