MINGORA: Private schools students outshined their counterparts in government schools in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) annual examination results announced by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Swat, here on Friday.

Despite claims by the provincial government that the public sector schools were better than the private sector in KP, not a single candidate from government schools in Swat, Shangla and Buner districts could manage to get a position in the top 20.

A blind boy, Azizullah, who appeared in grade 10 examination as a private candidate, stood third in general group.

Sehreen Rafiq of Sangota Public School topped the overall results, grabbing 1,041 marks out of 1,100. Mohammad Sohail Aziz of Garland Model School Galoch clinched second position, scoring 1,036 marks and Sajjad Anwar of Swat Grammar School Sambat got third position, obtaining 1,035 marks.

According to BISE Swat, a total of 29,136 students appeared for grade nine exams in science group, out of which, 20,605 students were declared successful, while 6,447 students appeared in the general group, and 2,964 were declared successful.

Similarly, in grade 10 science group, 25,451 students appeared out of which 20,462 were declared successful. In the general group, 6,959 students appeared and 4,090 were declared successful.

Ms Rafiq, who got the overall first position, gave the credit of her excellence to her teachers and parents and said they supported and guided her to clinch top position in the BISE Swat.

She said she wanted to become a neurosurgeon as there were very few women in the field. She said those girls who could not achieve position should not be discouraged as it was not the end.

“There are more and more opportunities to shine and I am sure if they work hard they will get positions in future,” she advised.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017