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TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien on Monday urged ICSE-ISC school principals to come together and oppose the New Education Policy (NEP), alleging that the policy was "anti-federal" and framed without consulting states or key stakeholders. Addressing a conference of school heads, O'Brien said the NEP undermined India's federal structure as "no states were consulted" during its formulation. He pointed out that several states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, have their own state education policies. "West Bengal implemented the state education policy in 2023 under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while Tamil Nadu's policy and Karnataka's draft policy were released in 2025," he said, adding that the lack of consultation with stakeholders had made implementation of NEP-linked projects difficult for schools. O'Brien was speaking as the chief guest at the 103rd Annual Conference of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools in India, held at La Martiniere for Girls
A total of 110 class 10 students figure in the top three rank holders list for Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) exam with a difference of one mark each between the three ranks. While four candidates have shared the top rank with 499 marks out of 500, 34 students are at the second spot with 498 mark. Similarly, the third rank has been shared by 72 candidates with 497 marks out of 500. The four toppers are -- Hargun Kaur Matharu (Pune), Anika Gupta (Kanpur), Pushkar Tripathi (Balrampur) and Kanishka Mittal (Lucknow). "It feels good to be on the top of the merit list. It is a big motivation. Last year, there was no merit list due to the pandemic, I am glad this year they have come up with ranks," Matharu said. Similarly, Kanishka Mittal said the experiment with two semesters will impact her overall performance but is glad that the results proved "otherwise". The second rank holders are Ved Raj (Chaibasa), Sandhya S (Bengaluru), Amolika Amit Mukherjee (Mumbai), Aadya