Girls outshine boys in the New Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) 12th Class examinations conducted in March at various international Indian schools in the Kingdom. The results were declared Friday morning. Neenu Susan George of International Indian School, Dammam (IISD) topped in the Kingdom with 94.2 percent. Ibrahim Musbah of IISJ got second position with 93.2 percent while Fateema Fayaz and Zayanah Zainuddin both from IISD stood third with 92.2 percent. Girls in various streams also clinched top positions in Dammam and Riyadh schools. Hafsa Rubiya Yazdani with 91.8 percent in third position in IISD while all top six positions in IISR in commerce and science streams were clinched by girl students who included Asha Shakeeb (91.6 percent) school topper, Hafsa Quraishi (89 percent) and Abbas Begum Meer (88.6 percent), Gauri Ghai (87.6 percent), Ahlam Abdul Rahman and Rahmath Khatoon Faria scored (87.2 percent). IISD with 99.5 percent excelled in the overall pass percentage among all other schools of the Kingdom. Its counterpart IISJ Jeddah got 96.4 percent whereas IISR stood third with 91.39 percent. A total of 1,222 students sat for CBSE examination conducted in March this year by the Kingdom's four international Indian schools including Dammam, which fielded 370, students, Jeddah (417), Riyadh (395) and Jubail (40). A result analysis revealed that only two students failed and nine compartments from IISD, IISR 34 failed and 39 compartments, IISJ 15 failed and 34 compartments while in IIS Jubail three failed. Neenu said she never expected for this to happen. “I feel thrilled also because I did not expect to be the top in the Kingdom,” said Neenu who wants to pursue electronic engineering in Kerala. Muhammad Shafee, IISD Principal said like previous years the students at IISD who have been doing well in the CBSE results, “This year again I am happy with the results,” he said. Syed Masood Ahmed, Principal-Incharge IISJ said his school received more distinctions than previous years “and we also performed better than our counterpart in Riyadh.” Talib Al-Rahman, IISR managing committee chairman said he is satisfied with the school results mostly because of the decreased number of failures this year. “If you compare 54 failures last year, we improved in our performance with 34 failures this year,” he said. The biggest challenge for those at the top would be to get admission in the professional courses of their choice. George, Neenu's father, a lab scientist in Saudi Aramco for the past 26 years hoped that since his daughter got merit she could be enrolled in the Kerala university without much haggling for capitation fees. Gulf-based students, who choose to pursue higher studies are at a greater disadvantage because of their NRI status, he said. Some universities in Kerala and other southern states such as Andhra Pradesh are demanding capitation fees for professional courses in the range starting from Rs400,000 for engineering courses to Rs4 million to Rs5 million for medicine, George said. __
