First among equals: Delhi government school students shine in Class X results

NEW DELHI: With 99.2% marks in his CBSE Class X examination, Vishant Malik, a Delhi government school student, is among three top scorers in the city. Malik, a resident of northeast Delhi’s Meet Nagar area, never took private lessons and doesn’t believe in mugging up the syllabus without understanding the concepts.
Like his sister before him, who is also a product of Delhi government’s Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) in Nand Nagri and now in the MBBS first year, Malik wants to study medicine.“Though I took part in many co-curricular activities, my focus has always remained on studies and I believe in completing some part of the syllabus every day,” he said. “My school teachers have helped me a lot in understanding concepts and I never needed tuitions.”
Delhi government schools’ 82.6% pass percentage in the Class X results is an increase of 11% points compared to 2019. The high scorers from Delhi government schools and their parents appreciated the rigorous learning and simple teaching practices of their institutions.
Malik’s father, Madan Pal Singh, himself a teacher in another Delhi government school, never thought twice before admitting his children in government schools, though he could have afforded sending them to private institutions. “As a teacher, I know everything about the education sector and Delhi government schools are much better. If students work hard, the results will be good,” he said. “However, I have never put any additional pressure on my children to perform well. Vishant prefers medicine and I will support him in studying whatever interests him,” he added.
Like Malik, another RPVV student, Pratibha, also wants to follow in her elder sister’s footsteps who studied at the same school and is now a medical student at Lady Hardinge College. The death of their brother due to muscle atrophy has pushed the sisters towards medicine. A student of RPVV, Dwarka Sector 10, Pratibha has scored 92% in her Class X boards.
In another similarity between the high scorers, Pratibha, too, has been active in co-curricular activities, besides being a top scorer in her school. She credited her teachers for her results and said the subject teachers had always promoted rigorous learning for students and they never had to learn the whole syllabus by rote without understanding the concepts.
“My father used to always meet my teachers for an update on my studies, and my performance in class. He has always tried to identify the challenge areas and better me. My teachers also guided me and my family on the right path,” she said. Pratibha’s father used to work in a private firm but has lost his job during the pandemic.
Owing to her interest in the banking sector, Jyoti, a student of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Chhatarpur who has scored 88%, said she had always thought of studying commerce, contrary to the expectations of her family that she would study science.
“I could not have retained information had the teaching practices not been so simple and easy to remember. My father is a driver, my mother is a homemaker and my elder brother is studying BCom at Delhi University,” she said. “I would like to be a successful banker one day. I am sure that with such a great education model, I will be able to realise my goal.”