The 14 toppers of the Bihar Class 12 board exams will be subjected to a retest and an interview with a panel of subject experts on June 3, the state government announced on Wednesday. The retest was ordered after the highest scorer in the arts stream appeared in a video shot by a local TV channel, in which she said political science dealt with one’s culinary skills, Hindustan Times reported.
Roby Rai topped in the arts stream, scoring 444 marks out of 500. However, she seemed to believe the board exams were scored out of 600, giving the impression that she was not aware of her own subjects. In addition to believing political science was about cooking skills, she also mispronounced it as “prodical science”. Science topper Saurabh Sresth also appeared to lack basic knowledge of the subject, when he failed to answer questions about sodium and electrons.
Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Control Board Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said Rai and Sresth’s results were put on hold. “Seven toppers each from the arts and science streams will be called,” Singh said, adding that their handwriting will also be checked to ascertain that they appeared for the papers themselves.
The Class 12 results declared on May 29 showed a major dip in the pass percentage in the state. Rai and Sresth’s interviews with a local TV channel brought into question the possibility of mass cheating backed by a section of the education department in Bihar.
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