The students of the International Indian School, Riyadh (IISR) made history by securing the top three positions in the Kingdom in the 12th grade Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) results, which were declared on Friday. A total of 1,311 students appeared for the CBSE 12th grade examination held in March 2009 from four international community schools in the Kingdom based in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail. Manzar Jamal Siddique, IISR Principal, said the students of his school made history by securing the top three positions in the Kingdom. Sharija Ravindran, who topped in the Kingdom scored 95.6 percent, Nazneen Makhbool with 94.2 percent ranked second, Arshia Fatima and Roshni T. Ravi shared third position with 93.6 percent. However, in the overall pass percentage the International Indian School, Dammam (IISD) that fielded 419 students secured the top position in Saudi Arabia with 99.25 percent with only three failures while its counterpart in Jeddah (IISJ) was in second position with 98.6 percent and IISR remained at third position with 92.6 percent. IISJ fielded a total number of 429 students – 398 passed, 25 compartment and six failure. IISR placed 456 students, 392 passed, 33 compartment and 31 failures. The Jubail school fielded 43 and 40 passed and one failure. The IISD school toppers are Jasmine Rahiman and Huma Khan, who shared first position with 93.2 percent, Fatima Zaba ranked second with 92.2 percent, Sreeja Kumar and Tesil N. Sani shared the third position with 92 percent. Mariam Siddiqui topped in Jeddah with 93.4 percent, Adeelah Yahya was in second position with 92.6 percent and Harish Sudhakaran Nair with 92.4 percent ranked third in the school. Muhammad Shafee, Principal, IISD said the girl students performed better than boys by securing all top positions in the Kingdom and at school level as well. He said girl students performed better because of their hard work and dedication. “The girl students performed better than boys because they (girls) are focused and more dedicated to their studies. The national toppers could not be reached as they have already left for India to pursue their competitive examination. According to a source, Sharija Ravindran is very well known for her classical dancing. Other statistics of the CBSE result showed that of the 10 students that topped in the commerce stream in Riyadh, only one was a boy. Of the 31 failed in the examination two were girls. Syed Masood, IISJ Principal Incharge, said the girl students have performed better than boys in his school. Shafee said the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) as introduced by the CBSE last year has no major effect on the students, except that they (students) complained that the board had prepared a tough chemistry paper.
