Bihar topper says Political Science related to cooking; result put on hold, re-exams ordered

Facing flak by the alleged academic incompetence of its state-level toppers, the Bihar School Examination Board has put their results on hold and ordered an investigation into the issue. Taking cognizance of the matter, Bihar Board Chairman Lal Keshwar Singh ordered a stay on the results.

The Board has also formed a probe committee to investigate the complete issue. Also, a re-exam for the candidates is likely to be conducted. The video showed an intermediate topper in the arts stream giving false answers about the course-curriculum of her subject.

State’s Arts topper, who scored 444 out of 500, was completely clueless when asked what political science was all about. Shockingly, the girl said that political science dealt with cookery. Another topper, who belonged to the same school was also found to be giving mediocre answers to common questions.

Stung by the media expose of "dubious" toppers of class 12th examination conducted by Bihar board, state Education Minister Ashok Choudhary on Wednesday said a high level probe has been ordered to re-check merit of the toppers. The probe would be conducted in all the three streams - Humanities, Science and Commerce--and merit of examiners who awarded the marks would also be checked, he said.

Video of a girl who topped the state government's higher secondary examination in Humanities pronouncing Political Science as 'Prodigal Science' and describing it as a subject related to cooking, while that of a boy who topped in Science but was unaware of electron and proton, exposed the results of the exam conducted by Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) this year.

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 P K Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities.

"Five merit holders of all the three streams of Science, Arts and Commerce will be re-examined by an expert team to know the truth of the excellent marks awarded to them by examiners," Choudhary said.

The state Education minister sounded perturbed over "lapse" shown by the board in publication of results. 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.

"I admit lapse on the part of the state examination board despite all efforts of the government to conduct a cheating-free examination," the minister said.

"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," the minister said.

(With inputs from PTI)