Patna: Following a string of questions raised on the competency of Bihar's education system, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has ordered that the first seven rank holders of the two streams will have to appear for test tomorrow following media depiction on some of their alleged inability to answer basic questions.
The development follows revelations by local media of toppers unaware of the subjects they opted for and what a subject they aced constituted. Political science, said the topper in the Arts stream, constituted lessons on cooking. The state of the Science topper was also no better – he was unaware of electron and proton.
The girl, who got the highest marks in Political Science, could not even correctly pronounce the name of the subject and called it ‘Prodigal Science’.
It is important to mention here that she secured 444 marks (90 per cent) out of 500 in the Class XII exams, the result of which was declared on May 28.
"Prodigal (read political) science is about cooking ," she said when asked what political science is all about.
However, she is not alone, Science topper Saurabh Shrestha, who scored 485 out of 500 marks has failed to answer a simple Chemistry question.
"Most reactive element in the periodic table is aluminium," Saurabh said replying to the question.
BSEB has also put on hold the results of the toppers of Arts and Science streams of class X11 examination.
“A total of 14 toppers, first seven rank holders each of Arts and Science streams have been called for a written exam as well as interview by a team of experts on June 3 to verify the truth of the results. Their results were also put on hold,” BSEB Secretary Harihar Nath Jha said today, adding that the decision was taken last evening.
Both toppers hailed from the Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district. The institution had courted controversy last year as well when the then Education Minister P K Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities.
Meanwhile, District Education Officer of Vaishali Satya Narayan Prasad said the BSEB instruction asking the toppers to appear before a team of experts tomorrow in Patna was today served to the Bishun Rai College for compliance.
State Education Minister Ashok Choudhary has already expressed his anger over “lapse” shown by the Board in publication of results.
“It is apparent that the some mafia organise everything for the students. We have ordered an inquiry and strict action will be taken against those found guilty. We made a lot of effort to reverse the state’s image after viral cheating videos last year and we cannot allow anyone to play with the state’s image,” Choudhary told Hindustan Times.
“There seems to be serious administrative lapse. We have been demanding that the board should have a list of qualified evaluators, but they try to do things in a hurry through just anyone and we suspect non-teachers may have also go into evaluation work,” he further added.
(With inputs from PTI)
