Bihar Intermediate Exam Topper 2021: As new BSEB 12th topper name expected soon, a look at past toppers

BSEB 12th Bihar Board Exam Topper 2021: The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has announced the result of the intermediate exam for arts, Science and Commerce streams.

Apart from being one of the largest states in the country population-wise, another reason why the board exam results in the state are under the spotlight is due to past instances of mass-scale cheating and fake topper scams in the state. It goes without saying that the practice of cheating in rural hinterlands is a common malaise in many states of the country. However, the scale of cheating and the impunity of students, parents and teachers involved in the process in Bihar has shocked the country many times in the last few years. Here are some of the incidents that made the board exam results in Bihar infamous.

In the year 2013, as many as 1600 students were expelled and barred from sitting in the exams due to the malpractice of cheating in the exam by the state authorities. Along with the students, about 100 parents were also arrested by police for allegedly aiding their wards to cheat in the exam by supplying books, guides, small chits of information etcetera.

As the use of smartphones increased dramatically in the last decade, a photograph from Vaishali’s Vidya Niketan school got viral in the year 2015. Parents and relatives of the students were seen in the photograph scaling the wall of the school in order to supply cheating material to the students in the exam hall. The sheer audacity and impunity visible in the photograph not only embarrassed the state government but also woke the officials up from their slumber to take strict action against malpractices of cheating in the state. Several news reports at the time indicated that the practice had been prevalent in the state for years and it had only come to light that year.

(Source: Express Photo by Prashant Ravi)

2016 Bihar Class 12th topper Ruby Rai transformed from an idol for students to a laughing stock in a matter of hours as the video of her not being able to answer even the basic Political Science questions went viral on the internet. Rai who had topped the exam in the arts stream far from being able to answer the questions on the subject was not even able to pronounce the term political science correctly in one go. Rai was not alone as Science topper from the same year Saurabh Shrestha, and third topper in Science stream Rahul Kumar also were found to be lacking in the basics of the subjects they topped in the state board exams. The incident showed that the malaise of cheating ran deep into a large scale nexus of authorities, middlemen, faculty, conniving parents and willing students.

Also Read: Bihar Board BSEB 12th Results 2021 Live Update: Check Bihar Intermediate Results Online Soon

Since the 2016 Ruby Rai incident, the state toppers are scrutinised more closely than the toppers from any other education boards in the country. The administration has also shown heightened willingness to curb cheating instances in the exam by regularly booking students for cheating and barring them from appearing in the examination.