Kejriwal, Sisodia visit Delhi's CBSE Class 12 exam toppers

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia visited the city's CBSE Class 12 examination toppers today.

The chief minister later told reporters that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was "investing" in the children for the "country's future".

His government had doubled the budget for the education sector in its first year, the AAP supremo said, adding that it was an "investment, not an expenditure".

Kejriwal and Sisodia, who is also the education minister of Delhi, paid a visit to the CBSE Class 12 toppers -- Bharti Raghav, Prince Kumar, the son of a DTC bus driver, Prachi Prakash and Chitra Kaushik -- at their respective residences.

They also visited an orphanage in Daryaganj to meet Shahnaz, who has topped the exam in the vocational stream.

"In the last few years, there has been a makeover of the government schools...the same education is being imparted in private and government schools now...we had increased the education budget from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore after our government was formed.

"It is like an investment, not an expenditure. We are investing in our children. We are investing for the country's future and we are getting to see the results," Kejriwal told reporters, adding that the AAP government was committed to supporting students.

In the CBSE Class 12 examination, Delhi's pass percentage was 89. Girls, with a pass percentage of 93.19, outperformed the boys (84.93) in the Delhi region.

Last year, the city's pass percentage was 88.37.

According to a government official, Kumar topped the science stream with a 97-per cent score, while Kaushik, with 95.6 per cent marks, was the topper in the humanities stream and Raghav and Prakash jointly topped the commerce stream.

The pass percentage of the government-aided schools in Delhi was 82.79 this year as against the 80.32 in 2017.

The pass percentage of the private schools was 88.35 this year as compared to last year's 84.20.