An estimated 86.31 per cent of over 9.12 lakh students who appeared for the West Bengal class 10 state board examination this year cleared it, an education official said on Thursday.
Among the students who cleared the exam, 4,03,900 are males and 5,08,698 females, 25 per cent more than the boys.
West Bengal Board of Secondary Examination president Ramanuj Ganguly said the pass percentage was 86.15 per cent last year.
Chandrachur Sen, a student of Rambhola High School in Cooch Behar district, secured the first rank, scoring 693 marks (99 per cent). Samyapriyo Guru of Purulia Zilla School scored 692 marks (98.86 per cent), securing the second rank.
The third position was shared by three people -- Udayan Prasad of Balurghat High School, Puspita Basuri of New Integrated Government School (Ilambazar) and Nairit Ranjan Pal of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission – who scored 691 marks (98.71 per cent) each.
Students from Cooch Behar, Purulia, Dakshin Dinajpur, Birbhum, South and North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Purba Bardhaman, Malda and Paschim Medinipur were among the top 10.
Among the districts, Kalimpong has the highest pass percentage of 96.26 followed by Purba Medinipur (95.49) and Kolkata (91.62).
Among the candidates from Kolkata, Somdatta Samanta of Kamala Girls School was among the top 10, securing 684 marks (97.71 per cent).
Samanta was among 18 candidates who scored the same marks and secured the 10th rank.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the successful candidates.
"My best wishes and congratulations to all the students who passed the secondary examinations. My congratulations to your parents and teachers. May your coming days be prosperous, I pray," she said on X.
Ganguly said, "The consistent trend of past years of students from other districts outperforming their peers in Kolkata in the class 10 board examination shows that educational scope and infrastructure is not confined to the metropolis and is equally available in smaller towns."
Sushanta Sen, the father of topper Chandrachur Sen, said his son wants to pursue medical studies.
"He did not follow any typical study schedule of 10-12 hours... he studied whenever he wished. He loves to take part in debates and is good in extempore speeches," he said.
