The toppers in all the three streams were girls from different colleges across Bihar.
The results of the Bihar School Education Board (BSEB) Class XII exams were announced in Patna on Wednesday. Overall results across three streams — arts, science and commerce — showed an increase of over 17 per cent as compared to last year. While the pass percentage compared to the last year saw an increase across all the three streams, only around 45 per cent students passed in the science stream.
The toppers in all the three streams were girls from different colleges across Bihar.
The topper in the science stream was Kalpana Kumari, who had topped the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges, the results for which were declared on June 4.
After malpractices and corruption at the highest level had come to light in 2016 and 2017, the BSEB and the state government were under pressure to hold examinations with more transparency this year for which many steps were taken.
Bihar Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma, along with BSEB Chairman Anand Kishore and top officials of the Education Department, announced the results at a press conference.
As compared to overall pass percentage of 35.24 per cent last year, this year’s pass percentage was 52.95 per cent.
Kalpana Kumari
The pass percentages in the three streams have also gone up, while the increase in the science stream was not as high as the jump recorded in the two other streams.
Last year, the pass percentage for arts stream was 37.13 per cent, which has gone up to 61.32 per cent; an increase of 24.19 per cent. In the commerce stream, the pass percentage, which was 73.76 per cent last year, has gone up to 91.32 per cent this year; up by 17.56 per cent. In science stream, the pass percentage last year was 30.11 per cent, which has gone up to 44.71 per cent; up by 14.6 per cent.
The toppers for the three streams were Nidhi Sinha (commerce), Kusum Kumari (arts) and Kalpana Kumari (science).
Kalpana also scored the highest marks in the NEET for entrance in medical colleges. A student from YKJM College in Bihar’s Sheohar district, she scored 434 out of 500 marks.
Nidhi, a student of RDS College in Muzaffarpur also scored 434 (86.8 per cent). Kusum, a student of Simultala Residential School in Jamui, scored 84.8 per cent.
Several steps were taken for more transparency in the examination process, including introduction of bar-coded answer sheets, 50 per cent objective questions on OMR sheets, asking students to remove their shoes and socks during examination, and cancelling home centres for practical examinations.
A total of 11.56 lakh students appeared for the examination of the 12.07 lakh who had registered for it.
BSEB results had come under the scanner after Ruby Rai, the arts stream topper in 2016, was found unable to answer simple questions related to her subjects. Former BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, his wife Usha, a former JD(U) MLA and principal Bachcha Rai were later arrested for malpractices.
Results came under cloud last year when arts stream topper Ganesh Kumar was found to have forged his age, showing it as 24 when he was 41 years old.