Bihar’s Education department will conduct an unusual test for seven top-scoring Intermediate Board students on Friday, at which they must prove that they are genuine candidates who actually earned their high scores in this year’s examination.
The retest has been ordered after a television channel aired ‘sting’ footage purportedly showing them struggling to answer basic syllabus questions.
Class 12 candidates Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shresth, toppers from arts and science stream were interviewed on camera. Ms. Rai, an arts student, said she studied ‘prodikal science’ [to mean political science] which dealt with ‘cooking.’ Mr. Shresth identified the most reactive element in the periodic table as ‘aluminum’ [while it is in the less active group].
The government responded on Wednesday by ordering a probe and asking seven toppers from the two streams to appear before a special committee on June 3 for an interview and retest. This year, the Bihar Intermediate Board examination results released on May 28 showed a sharp fall in passes. Only 56.73 per cent students passed in arts against 86.47 per cent last year. In science, 67.06 per cent got through, against 89.32 per cent.
Ms. Rai got 89 per cent in the exam, while Mr. Shresth secured 97 per cent. Both are from V.N. Rai College, Hajipur, in Vaishali district.
“Like Class X, the Intermediate results too have dipped because we curbed cheating,” Education Minister Ashok Chaudhury said.
Ms Rai said the examination was of 600 marks whereas it was for total 500 marks as per the mark sheet. The science topper, who got 485 marks out of 500, struggled to answer a chemistry question on what linked water and H2O.
The Minister said, “We made great efforts to reverse the State’s bad image for mass copying during Board examinations. We cannot allow someone to blot it.” There might be an “education mafia” exploiting students “but one cannot question the whole examination,” he argued.
Chairman of the Bihar Board, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, said the results of both toppers had been put on hold. “Their handwriting too will be compared with the answer sheets,” he said.
In the Boards Class X examinations too more than half of the students had failed this year after the government had taken some tough measures to check mass-cheating and copying.
