Saturday, 04 June 2005: The Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination results declared on Saturday saw a significant drop in the number of centums compared to last year.

Director of Government Examinations D. Jagannathan attributed the drop in the much-coveted centums to the "impact of the new syllabus". The 100/100s in mathematics had halved compared to last year; science fared worse with only one-fifth the number of centums than 2004. Social sciences took a beating with only six students in the State securing perfect marks compared to 526 last year.


But in all, there was heartening news for students in the matriculation and SSLC stream with a marginal increase in the pass percentage this year. In keeping with tradition, girls had a higher pass percentage

In the SSLC examination, around 7.5 lakh students appeared this year. Of them 77.8 per cent passed compared to 77.4 per cent last year. However, the number of candidates scoring over 60 per cent was significantly lower than last year.

In fact, this year's topper A. Ramya of SHN Ethel Harvey Girls, Sattur in Aruppukottai with 490 out of 500 marks scored five marks less than last year's first ranker.

Tuticorin girls stole the limelight with Maharasi V (Holy Cross) and Hindi student R. Anjana (Spic Nagar HSS) sharing the second rank and Sharmila Devi K and Shirley G both from SPIC Nagar in third place. Also sharing the third spot were Mannargudi's Kasthuri G. (St Joseph's), Nagercoil's N. Sindhu (St. Joseph's) and Kattur's Oliver Samson Roy (St. Antony's HS).

Sitting pretty on top of 95,300 candidates who wrote the Matriculation examination was Chennai boy Somanathan R.M. (with 1076/1100) who had chosen Sanskrit at D.A.V Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Mogappair East. The overall pass percentage in the matriculation stream was 91.67 per cent (90 per cent last year).

Among the Tamil students, the topper was Salem's C.B. Vijay Shankar of Holy Cross Matric with 1060/1100. Close on his heels in second place, were S. Aiswarya (Keins MHSS of Tirunelveli), E. Prakashmurthy (St. Joseph's MHSS of Perambalur) and Aarthi N (Shristhi MHSS of Katpadi) with one mark less.

K.P. Kiruthika of (Arockiamatha MHSS, Tiruchi and Chennai girl K. Ashwini (Sri Chakravarty MHSS) with 1058 marks were third rankers. In the Anglo Indian stream, J. Ramkumar of Stanes HSS, Coimbatore (970/1000) was the top ranker among 4,878 students. The overall pass percentage was 95. 8 per cent, a marginal increase over last year's 94.6 per cent.

G. Aishwarya, R. Shylaja and S.R. Koushika from Chennai's Ahobila Math Oriental School monopolised the first three spots of the Oriental School Leaving Certificate Examination. There was a drop in the percentage of passed candidates this year to 81.5 per cent from 87.1 per cent last year. The Government examination director made a specific mention of the outstanding performance of the tsunami-affected students who recorded an 81.3 pass percentage.

"They have done very well with the extra one month given to them," he said, adding that 16,060 students took the examination. Mr. Jagannathan said the mark certificates would be given to the candidates on June 13. Students can apply for re-totalling of marks from June 6 to June 11 (before 5 p.m.), he added. Students who have failed in three subjects or less can take the instant supplementary examination on July 5 (Matric) and July 7 (SSLC, Anglo Indian, OSLC).