Selina Keisham, the Manipur topper, despite bagging the first position in the Science stream,she did not get a place at St.Stephen’s first cut-off list of DU 2018. The topper, whose aim is to be a civil servant, applied for History (Hons) at St.Stephen’s College but could not get admission as the cut-off for the History (Hons) for the Science stream erect at 98%.  This year, Selina had topped the board examination  with 96.4% ( 482 marks) from the Science stream.

Delhi University’s St.Stephen’s College first cut-off was released on June 12, and for some subjects, the cut-off is above 98%. From last year, the cut-offs for Humanities courses ascend high by 0.25 to 1 percent. Meanwhile, In the Science stream, there is a minor drop in cut-offs.

For Science stream, the cut-off for the History (Hons) is 98%, Commerce- 98%, Humanities 96.5%. Economics (Hons) has the highest cut-off, for commerce students at 98.75%, for Humanities at 98% and for science students at 97.5%. Compared to last year, the cut-offs also increased by 0.25 to 0.5% across the streams.

In an interview with Indian Express, Selina said that she wants to work for her state and the education system and craves to be a civil servant. She wants to modernize the board syllabus at a par with all Centre boards like CBSE, ICSE and if she gets a chance to work in the state education department, she will try to eliminate corruption from the education system.

The topper specified that as the syllabus is upgraded, the aspirants of all India boards get a benefit in any competitive exams as it is formulated keeping in mind the competitive examinations. However, as the board syllabus is not updated, the state board aspirants are lagging behind.
Selina also confessed that she did not take help from any coaching centers, and she studied on her own.  However, for success, the topper gave all credits to her teachers saying that the teachers always helped her in clearing all her doubts, and encouraged her to get success. Like others, Keisham also don’t want to pursue in the field of medical or engineering. Her aim is to get admission in one of the reputable colleges namely, St.Stephens, Hindu, Miranda and also she wishes to pursue higher education courses from DU colleges.

The topper also said that due to the crisis in the state, the schools also get shut down many times, and the teachers face a complication in completing syllabus on time which restricts the preparation for lots of students.

The teenager wished that the state will get free of political crisis, and the students can study calmly.

In Liberal College, Selina’s father Keisham Sudhir Singh is a Professor in Imphal, and her mother is a housewife. The 17-year-old Selina lived in Imphal West. This year, 67.04% aspirants cleared the examination whereas 467 aspirants got the distinction.
The Delhi University first cut-off is expected to be released on June 19. This year, the University of Delhi received over 2.7 lakh registrations for the admission. The enrollment ended on June 7.

Written  by Jyotsna Bhasin