Bihar govt curbs mass copying, but loses badly in pass percentage

Patna, June 1: Bihar government was left red-faced after a photographed showed how people were scaling the walls of a school to help their relatives during the class 10 exam last year.

Following that, strict measures were taken to prevent examinees from adopting unfair means. However, the government has even more reasons to feel ashamed this year.

As a result of the measures taken by the government, only 46.6% students passed, a drastic dip of 28%, in comparison to last year when 75.17 % had cleared the exams.

Out of the 15.47 lakh students who appeared for the exam, 8.21 lakh failed and 7.8 lakh students have failed in mathematics alone. The pass percentage of boys was 17% more than the girls. The pass percentage of boys was 54.44% while that of girls was 37.61%. Only 10.86 per cent students attained first division as compared to 21.45% students of last year.

The result of 1,669 students are pending.

Incidentally, all top 10 students are from a government residential school- Simultala Awasia Vidyalaya of Jamui district. This was opened just a few years back on the footsteps of Jharkhand's famous Netarhat School.

Last year, after the photographs went viral, the then Education Minister P.K. Shahi said, "Over 14 lakh students are taking the examination, what can the government do to prevent copying if parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate? Should the government give orders to shoot them?"

However, this year, at the behest of the new Education Minister Ashok Chaudhary, CCTV cameras were installed, apart from 70,000 officials and policement deployed at the examination centers. The government also announced fine of Rs 10,000 and imprisonment for those who tried to help the examinees with answers. Apart from this, Section 144 was also imposed around the centers to keep guardians and relatives away. Some schools that are notorious for mass copying have been identified and blacklisted.

OneIndia News