After a controversial media expose of the state of education in Bihar, Education Minister Ashok Choudhary on Wednesday ordered a probe into the merit of the state toppers. Last week, a video of Ruby Rai, the girl who topped the Bihar School Examination Board’s (BSEB) class 12 examination in Humanities did the rounds. Rai pronounced Political Science as ‘Prodigal Science’ and thought it was a subject related to cooking. A video of Saurav Shreshtha, the boy who topped Science revealed that he was unaware of what ‘electrons’ and ‘protons’ were.
The shocking revelation has resulted in a probe in all three streams – Humanities, Science and Commerce – and the merit of those who checked the papers would also be checked. The state board has therefore called all 14 toppers from the three streams for a re-examination on 3 June, The Times of India reported.
Both toppers hail from Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district. The institution had courted controversy last year as well when the then Education Minister PK Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities.
Merit holders of all the three streams of Science, Arts and Commerce will be re-examined by an expert team to arrive at the truth behind the excellent marks awarded to them by examiners.Ashok Choudhary, Education Minister, Bihar
The incident has once again shown the state in a poor light after a photograph of parents and well wishers scaling a school building in Vaishali district last year during matriculation exam to supply chits to examinees went viral.
After a lot of hard work the state government had conducted cheating-free examination this time to erase its bad image due to copying in matriculation exam last year. But the expose of toppers has once again tarnished the government’s image. We will dismiss officials found guilty in committing this irregularity.Ashok Choudhary, Education Minister, Bihar
Rai had scored 444 out of 500. She was not even aware of the total marks of all subjects, and said it was 600 instead of 500.
(With inputs from PTI)
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