Abu Dhabi girl fought illness to become a CBSE exam topper

Sathya Subramoniam Iyer

An Abu Dhabi girl student has shown some great determination to fight all odds to top her school. Despite missing an entire month of school due to flatback syndrome and an exam for internal marks, Sathya Subramoniam Iyer of St Joseph's School has scored 97.6 per cent in CBSE Class X exam.
As per available school results at the time of going to press, Sathya is the topper among girl students from the Capital.
"I never expected this result. All thanks to my teachers, principal and parents. I earnestly thank my class teacher Annie Joseph who revived interest in me for mathematics," Sathya said.
Sathya had flatback syndrome and stiff neck. She missed an entire month of classes and also an exam out of 'best of three' held for 20-mark internal assessment in October.
"She wrote her internals with a stiff neck in the medical room of the school. There was no option but to write. However, she was determined to write the exams. She couldn't sit on hard surface and carried a pillow to the school," Sangeetha, her mother, said.
"I thank principal sister Carmen, her class teacher and other teachers. They were very kind," said Sangeetha, who was a teacher at St Joseph's School.
Sathya never went for any tuition classes. And her mother said parents should not put pressure on children with tuition classes.
Sathya got 95 in English, 99 in French, 97 in mathematics, 98 in science and 99 in social science to make a total of 488 marks. "If we listen to our teachers in class then tuitions are not needed to get good marks." The family hails from Kerala and her engineer father Subramoniam said he was proud of Sathya.
ashwani@kahleejtimes.com

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