Kazi Farhat Abdul Naeem of St Francis De'Sales High School, Aurangabad, stood second in the division with 94.26 per cent, while Yelikar Ashwini Avinash of Holy Cross English School, Cantonment, Aurangabad, bagged the third position with 93.73 per cent.

Declaring the results at a press conference today, chairperson of the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Govind Shende, said the overall pass percentage in the Aurangabad division (comprising Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani and Beed districts) was 47.98 per cent. Of the 1,20,510 students who took the exam this year, 57,832 passed. The examination was conducted at 331 centres. Students from 1,222 schools from the four districts appeared.

Girls fared better than the boys, securinga pass percentage of 57.832 per cent against 44.05 for the boys. The pass percentage of the newly created Latur Board, comprising the districts of Latur, Nanded, and Osmanabad, is 53 per cent.

In the Nashik division, Ansari Ridwana Farhan Shabbir Hasan from L M Sardar Urdu High School in Deopur, Dhule, topped.Ansari Ridwana scored 92.66 per cent, while Deval Arunkumar Bhamre from Jaihind High School in Deopur, Dhule, was placed second at 92.26 per cent.

Nilesh Shriram Palve topped the merit list in the backward class category, scoring 90.26 per cent, while Ansari Khalid Akhtar Eijaz Ahmed from Malegaon topped the merit list of disabled students. He scored 81.46 per cent. Altaf Hussein Shabbir Ahmed from J A T Night High School, Malegaon, secured 71.20 per cent.

The overall pass percentage in Nashik division is 52.17.

The Nashik board covers Nashik, Dhule, and Jalgaon districts. Dhule notched up the maximum percentage of successful students at 62.09.

`I want to join the IAS'

Ten years ago,when Vijay Tak, an engineer with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) died in an accident, no one dreamt that his daughter would top the SSC exam one day.

His daughter, Prachi, who has stood first in the Aurangabad division and is placed third in the state was in Std I when her father died in 1987. She had two younger brothers, one of them a month old. However, her mother, Sadhana, was determined that her husband's death should not deprive her children of a good education.

Sadhana soon took the children to her father's house in Parbhani, where Prachi showed her brilliance early at school. But the difficulties continued. Her grandfather, G T Shahane, was to retire from the collectorate and Sadhana knew she would have to get a job. She enrolled for the B Ed course and joined the Bal Vidya Mandir High School at Parbhani, as a high school teacher.

``My decision was a very conscious one. I could have got a job with the MSEB but that would have kept me away from my children,'' Sadhana told TheIndian Express.

In her interview to the press this morning, Prachi said, ``I have kept my options of engineering and medicine open, but what I am sure about is I want to become an IAS officer,'' Prachi added.

Except for tuition in mathematics, Prachi relied mainly on the examinations conducted at school during the year. As for her hobbies, she likes playing chess and has bagged many awards at tournaments. She also wields the paintbrush with equal skill. Kumbhakaran Atul Rameshrao, who topped the list of disabled students in the division, was ecstatic. A student of Shivaji High School, Kumbhakaran, secured 81.06 per cent. Struck by polio at the age of four, Kumbhakaran's mother worked as a labourer to bring up her children. His mother had to find time from her work and escort him to school and back. ``I knew my son would excel at his studies. And having failed at giving him proper medicines in his childhood, I did not want to deprive him of a good education,'' she says.