Bihar board cancels result of Class 12 science toppers after re-test

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on Saturday cancelled the result of first and third toppers in the science stream as both failed their re-test and decided to give another chance to the arts topper to appear for a re-test on June 11, officials said.

BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad told media here that the government has also cancelled the recognition of Vinshu Rai College in Vaishali district where the two toppers, who failed in the re-test, were students.

"Result of Class 12 Science topper Saurabh Shreshtha and third topper Rahul Kumar have been cancelled by the board on the basis of result of the re-test. Both have failed in the re-test," he said.

The Bihar government on Saturday received a report on a re-assessment of 13 of 14 toppers of Class 12 examination which was meant to find out if they really deserved their high grades or had cheated their way to the top.

The BSEB, which conducts the Class 12 exam, is also in trouble as it had announced the result of Class 12 last month.

The 14 students were called for a re-assessment by the BSEB after Aaj Tak TV channel showed a sting in which Ruby Rai, who topped the Class 12 exam in the arts, said: "Prodikal (read political) science is about cooking."

The sting showed Shreshtha, the science topper, saying: "Most reactive element in the periodic table is aluminium."

The failure of two of the students to sensibly answer some questions about the subjects they 'topped' in suggested that exams results in Bihar continues to be a very dubious affair with the possibility that cheating and fraud continue on a large scale.

All 14 toppers, except Ruby Rai, appeared on Friday for the re-assessment before a panel of experts and anti-corruption wing of the BSEB which tried to find out if they are toppers for real or used impersonation, bribery or other fraudulent means to pass the exam.

Ruby, who failed to appear for the assessment, had scored 444 out of 500 marks in the arts stream and Saurabh Shreshtha 485 out of 500 in science.

Both belong to V.R. College in Vaishali district, which reportedly has a dubious reputation of consistently churning out 'toppers' without any evidence of academic excellence.

Four of the students who appeared for the re-assessment belong to the Arts stream and nine to Science.

The BSEB claimed this year that Class 12 exams were conducted free of cheating, citing a drastic fall in the pass percentage as the proof.

Till last year, mass cheating was reported in state board exams.

--IANS

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