Thursday, May 27, 2004 - Students from Thanjavur, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tirunelveli districts have completely outdone their counterparts in metropolitan Chennai in this year's SSLC and matriculation examinations.

The results of the class X examinations were released today. Chennai students did not get a single first rank in the two streams. However, the top ranker in Anglo-Indian schools and the second ranker from the matriculation stream emerged from the city suburbs.

In keeping with the tradition built over the past decade, girls took away most of the top ranks in all the three streams. The overall performance fell marginally compared to 2003, said the Director of Government Examinations, C. Palanivelu, after officially releasing the results at 9 a.m. However, in terms of number there was not much difference in passes between last year and now.


Of the 7,29,972 students (7,36,331 in 2003) who took the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination, 77.4 per cent have passed (78.2 per cent last year). S. Gayathri of St. Joseph's Girls Higher Secondary School, Thanjavur, with 495 out of 500 marks emerged the topper.

In the matriculation stream, 88,908 candidates appeared (against last year's 84,964) and 90 per cent of them passed (90.6 per cent in 2003); 91.3 per cent of the girls came out successful compared to 87.6 per cent among boys (last year's figures were 91.7 and 89.8 per cent).

The topper was M.A. Uttara of TVS Lakshmi Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai, with 1,068 out of 1,100 marks. Her classmates, V. Swarna and A. Rukma Krithika took the second and third slots. The only high performer from Chennai was U. Charu Kumar (Velammal Matric), who shared the third rank.

In the Anglo-Indian stream, B. Anusha of St. Domincs, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai got 963 out of 1,000 to secure the top rank among 4,860 candidates; 88.5 per cent among them were placed in first class. The overall pass percentage was 94.6, down from last year's 96.6.

In the Oriental School Leaving Certificate examinations, in which 1,220 students appeared, 1,042 came out successful (87.1 per cent).

Dr. Palanivelu said mark certificates would be given at the examination centres on June 9. Students can apply for re-totalling from May 31 to June 4 (5 p.m).

The applications would be available in all district educational offices and the regional joint directorates of government examinations.