THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala put up an impressive show in the CBSE Class XII examination with the Thiruvananthapuram region comprising the state and Lakshadweep, registering the highest pass percentage of 95.41, while the national success rate was 87.56 per cent.
B Arjun of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, bagged the second rank along with two other students, and emerged the state topper. Arjun, is the son of Balgovind Kunhiraman, a former Naval officer who is now based in the UAE, and Sujatha Balgovind. He scored 495 out of 500 in the science stream.
Out of the 35,301 students who appeared for the exam from the region, 33,679 became eligible for higher studies. While girls recorded a pass percentage of 97.30, the success rate of boys was 93.60 per cent. “This year, the number of girl students who scored 75 per cent and above (Distinction) was noticeably high when compared to the boys. While close to 70 pc of the girl students from the region earned Distinction, around 60 per cent boys also earned the same,” Mahesh D Dharmadhikari, Regional Officer, Thiruvananthapuram Region of CBSE, told ‘Express’.
The Toppers
Arjun had also topped the Kerala Engineering Entrance score by securing 911 out of 960 (99 per cent). He completed his matriculation from Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Bombay, and joined KV, Pattom for his Plus Two course two years ago. “I used to do do my studies strictly on a day-to-day basis and did not keep anything for the eleventh hour. The encouragement of my parents and teachers was really helpful,” said Arjun. The Kendriya Vidyalaya student did not have any tuition for the CBSE examination but underwent coaching for the engineering entrance examination. His elder brother B Gautam has just completed BTech from SRM University Chennai.