“It’s a humiliation for our children,” one parent said. “Instead of taking pride in their students for achieving a 10/10 score, the management has ridiculed and humiliated our students,” said another.

IISJ Principal Syed Masood Ahmed defended the decision. “It’s actually a collective decision taken by all Indian school principals. It’s not aimed at demoralizing our students but upholding the sanctity of merit,” he said. Ahmed said he believed in honoring a few to encourage others to work hard and understand the value of hard work and the CBSE supports this.

The management clarified that they were honoring only 13 students who have secured 10/10 without an asterisk against any subject. The remaining 46 students scored 10/10, but with an asterisk against one or two subjects in the results published.

The CBSE recognizes all 59 students with CGPA 10/10 at par. Those who received asterisk marks show their scores were upgraded by one level, probably as a result of rounding up the marks of any given subject, ensuring the average falls above 95 percent. The management said they would hold another function to honor the remaining students. But parents pointed out that other Indian schools had honored all top scorers without differentiating between them.

The parents said they had approached school authorities including higher board member Dr. M.S. Karimuddin to get their children recognized during the annual day but nothing happened.

The parents were not happy with the idea of holding another function as the school closes within two weeks for the long summer vacation. "After the vacation it would all be forgotten and buried," one parent said.

The parents wanted to know whether the management discarded 46 top scorers because of any short of funds to procure trophies or mementos or because of a shortage of time for the distribution of prizes during the ceremony.