Kolkata: Sabaidul Islam, 31, from West Bengal's Murshidabad district, has cleared the Class 10 examination after nine attempts spread over 17 years, officials said on Thursday.

Islam scored 371 marks out of 600 in the examination, the results of which were declared last week.

Despite ups and down in his family life and repeated failures, Islam never let go of his dream of cracking the examination one day.

District education department officials said Islam could not pass the internal school test to become eligible for the Class 10 exam in 1992. He cleared the school-level test but failed in the board exams in 1993 and 1994. The next year he did not appear for the examination.

"Between 1996 and 1998, he sat for the same exam but failed three consecutive times and in 1999 Islam's father passed away. He left his studies and tried to concentrate on farming," an official said.

"He got admission to Class 8 in Rakhaldaspur Madhyamik School in 2004 and started his preparation for Class 10," he added.

Islam appeared for the Class 10 exam in 2007 but could not secure the pass marks in science. In 2008, he failed in physical science and mathematics.

"I had no interest in maths and my handwriting was also very poor. But I had to pass so I started practising that subject along with physical science," said Islam.

This year, he secured 73 marks in physical science and 20 (the minimum passing marks) in mathematics. IANS