For Pankaj, the son of a DTC employee, his school is the best and he does not regret not having gone to a public school. Besides his family, Pankaj thanks his teachers for guiding him. The Rajakiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas are the state's answer to training the talented among economically weaker sections and Pankaj's scores-- Maths (99), Physics (99), Chemistry (98), Computer Science (93) and English (90)-- more than reiterate that.

With assembly elections approaching soon, the Congress-led Delhi government was quick to appropriate credit for the the class XII CBSE results. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit the highlighted this year's achievements with education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely by her side.

The pass percentage has increased by almost three percent since last year in Delhi government schools. The chief minister noted that a decade back, the pass percentage of Delhi government schools was around a mere 39 per cent. ``Nine years ago it was a stigma to send a child to a government school. Even small public schools were preferred over the state-run schools. However, the government's efforts in the last decade has reversed this trend,'' Dikshit asserted.

Dwelling on the steps taken by the education department over the last few years, Lovely said, ``The workshops in collaboration with SCERT to make our teachers more efficient and in tune with the children have paid off. Moreover, the strict monitoring mechanism and internal assessments have worked well.''