Grade 10 is often looked at as the crunch year for all Indian students with parents looking at it as the first step in their children's future career.

Grade 10 also marks a threshold where the students get set for the rough and tumble of college while ensuring they maintain high academic standards.

"Results for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) grade 10 are generally as per the expectations of the school authorities. A welcome emerging trend in the result of modern Indian languages and foreign language group is noticed. In this year's result, there is consistency in the numerical scores of the students securing A1 grade in different languages," said S.S.U Tabrez, chairman of the Council of CBSE-affiliated schools in the Gulf and principal of the Emirates English Speaking School, Dubai.

On why so much emphasis is placed on the grade 10 examination, Tabrez said, "The fear-of-the-unknown factor is dominant in the minds of the parents as well as the students since grade 10 is the first public examination in the 10+2 system. Secondly the grade 10 results sets the trend for future results."

"Thus, everyone — students, teachers and parents want to give their 100 per cent. In addition to this, the allotment of streams and options in grade 11 is on the basis of the grade 10 result. To get a stream of one's choice, one has to perform well in grade 10," he said.

Ashok Kumar, principal, Indian High School Dubai, says much the same thing.

"Grade 10 exam, in one sense, is the first step at the crossroads. On it depends the choice of subjects of higher study and hence choice of careers."

Besides, it also gives the student a taste of nearly every subject allowing him to decide what he wants to pursue.

"Unlike the grade 12 examination where the student is walking on a self-chosen path, the grade 10 exam requires the student to engage with a wide variety of subjects, even those for which he has neither aptitude nor interest. Grade 10 is in one sense a combination of the first stage of education in which a wide variety of subjects are touched and require equal attention," said Kumar.

Dwelling on the grading system, Madhav Rao, principal, Our Own English High School, Dubai, added that the CBSE never announces a merit list in terms of percentages.

"This is because different students take different combination of subjects and the scoring in each subject is not the same. So how can we compare two percentages when students have different subject combinations?"

"What CBSE recognises is .1 per cent of top scorers in a subject and they are awarded certificates. The other is the grading system. Those student who are in the A1 grade are within the one-eighth population of top scores. Hence, aggregate percentage has no relevance," he said.

According to Rao, admissions to top colleges in India are done on a percentage basis.

The competition is so stiff that there is always pressure on students to score high.

But even then, many students are left disappointed. This is why the CBSE will soon introduce the grading system and stop evaluating through marks, he added.

UAE Top Scorers

Asian International School, Ruwais: Neethu Jacob – 86.8 per cent followed by Murugesa P. Aishwaryah – 83.8 per cent and Shahul Nath – 82 per cent.

Asian International School, Madinat Zayed: Melvin Mathai – 84.4 per cent followed by Vipin Mathew George – 83 per cent, Shafin Frahan P. V. and Shareena Mohammad Sharafuddin scoring – 81.2 per cent.

Wisdom High School, Abu Dhabi: Fiona Miriam Abrahm – 91.2 per cent followed by Thasleema Ali and Suhasini Durai. Among boys: Abdul Baseth Mohammad – 79 per cent followed by Varun Satish Pattil and Anmol Kumar Ramachandani.

Our Own English High School, Al Ain: Priyansha Chatterjee – 92.6 per cent followed by Aishwarya c Ramachandran – 91 per cent and Anurag Ravi Kadasne – 90.8 per cent.

Sunrise English Private School, Abu Dhabi: Shruthi Suresh Babu - 92.4 per cent followed by Sandra Meryl Daniel and Betsy Mary Kuriakose. Among boys: Joythish Ravindran Pillai – 91.4 per cent followed by Jason Cletus Pinto – 91.2 per cent and Nidal Rashid.

The Millennium School Dubai: Purnika Anatharamakrishnan – 84.6 per cent followed by Rajaram Murali – 84.2 per cent.

New Indian Model School, Dubai: Chinnu Madhu Kumar - 91.2 per cent followed by Lekshmi Hari Lal - 90.4 per cet and Niju Babu - 83.6 per cent.
Among boys, Kannan Ravi - 86.4 per cent followed by Obaidullah 86.2 per cent and Anaz Abdul Assis - 84.4 per cent.

Gulf Indian High School, Dubai: Harpeet Kaur – 87 per cent, followed by Blessy Mary Stephen – 85 per cent and Syeda Zainub Raheem – 85 per cent. Among boys: Vipin Varghese – 83 per cent followed by Davinder Singh, Nasir Hussain and Sal Sabeel.

Indian High School, Dubai: Shifa Fazal Mahamood – 94 per cent followed by Anshika Kishin Bhatia – 93.6 per cent and Abhishek Birla – 92.8 per cent.

Sharjah Indian School: Noufi Noushad and Rashmi Balvant Bhagwat : 92 per cent followed by Viji Vijayan - 91.6 per cent and Lakshmi J Nair, Raziya Nawaz Parayil and Shyamamanjari Menon who all scored - 91.2 per cent. Among boys: Mohammed Fawas N.K. - 91 per cent, Parashar Archishkumar Thanki - 90.6 per cent while Rahul Madhusoodhanan and Amar Bin Karim both scored - 90.2 per cent.

Delhi Private School, Sharjah: Preeti Kosaraju - 93.2 per cent followed by Shringa Murali - 91.2 per cent and Aakriti Mehta - 90.2 per cent. Among boys: Karthik Shankar - 91.8 per cent, Soumyojeet Bagchi 89 per cent, Abhishek Garg and Anand Swaminathan 88.4 per cent.

Our Own English High School, Fujairah: Zonobia Safar – 95.6 per cent followed by Vinitha Vasanth – 88. 4 per cent and Ajin Sidharthan – 87 per cent.

Ajman Intermediate English School: Meena Kumari – 83 per cent followed by Farhana Mohammad Haroon 72 per cent and Sudipta Devi – 71 per cent. Among boys: Mohammad Alam Zaker Hussain, Love Preet Kumar followed by Abdul Rehman Mohammad Nabi.

Indian School Ajman: Amrutha Vijayan – 94.2 per cent, Roshna Raj- 90.6 per cent and Catherine Alexander 89.6 per cent.

Modern Indian School, Dibba: Devangi Kirit Kumar – 90.2 per cent followed by Talvinder Kaur 82.6 per cent and Kartik Ram Chandra Shetty – 79.6 per cent.

Indian School RAK: Aneesh Sethu Madhavan - 93.8 per cent followed by Delta Joseph - 92.2 per cent and Anu Rachel Raju - 90.2 per cent.

Al Noor Indian Islamic School, Abu Dhabi: Shahar Banu – 90.2 per cent, Shaima Zarrin – 86 per cent, Naima Zarrin – 85.4 per cent, Nishad Abdul Nasir – 83.8 per cent.

Our Own English High School, Abu Dhabi: P.S. Rohith 95.2 per cent, Rahul Narayan Unni – 94.6 per cent, Kevin Sujal – 93.6 per cent, Shakib Azam Abu Saleh Anees Ahmad – 92 per cent, Kavya Krishnan – 93.4 per cent, Remya Raghunath – 93 per cent, Priyanka Nambiar and Sikha S. Kumar – 92 per cent.

Indian Islahi Islamic School, Abu Dhabi: Nishat Mohammad Fami, Naufa Abdul Azeez, Shabaz Naziya Najeeb and Sonia Simon.

Abu Dhabi Indian School: Arjun Thampi – 94.8