Chennai yet to get an English topper

CHENNAI: Despite being a metropolitan city boasting of several top-notch schools, a State topper in English continues to elude Chennai this year as well. The top three ranks in English this year (196/200) were all taken by students from the districts.Swarna Solomon, an English teacher in the city, told Express: “As far as the corrections are concerned, it is liberal and lenient. It is very easy for a student to score 96 per cent here. However, we do not know how the corrections are elsewhere.”She also says that students from the districts follow guides, which give the answer closest to what will be expected in the exams, whereas city students try to manage with their own knowledge of English.Paul Balachandar, a senior English teacher, seconds her view: “Here they tend to concentrate on the main subjects like Maths, Physics, Chemistry, since they want to get into professional courses. So they are inclined to ignore the subject.” He also faults the incursion of the US spelling and SMS lingo in the exam papers as reasons for losing marks.However, all three state ranks in communicative English are from a city school — Lady Andal Matriculation.