Patna: Angry students went on the rampage in Bihar on Wednesday, shouting slogans against the government, burning effigies of top leaders and indulging in violent protests a day after about 70 per cent of them failed the Grade 12 examination conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board. The result was announced on Tuesday.
Agitated at the poor pass percentage, a large number of students gathered outside the office of Bihar Intermediate Council demanding re-evaluation of answer-sheets but soon went berserk after the main gate of the office was locked from inside.
Witnesses said the mob pelted stones on the office premises and also tried to break open the gate, prompting the police to intervene. The police then resorted to caning to disperse the mob.
TV footages showed policemen chasing protesters and beating the fleeing students. Many fell down and fainted. Around a dozen were wounded in the police caning, as per reports. A dozen others were also taken into custody.
The cops also dispersed a group of girl students staging a sit-in outside the Bihar Intermediate Council office. Similar protests were reported from other parts of the state, too.
“Our career stands ruined now owing to academic mismanagement and administrative callousness. Quite many of us qualified for the prestigious JEE Mains examinations but we have been failed in the Grade 12 examination,” said a student, showing his results of JEE Main and Grade 12 exams. “We have been left nowhere,” he added.
Many questioned the evaluation and alleged the government hired incompetent primary schoolteachers to evaluate the answer-sheets in a bid to meet the deadline of result publication after some 400,000 teachers appointed on contractual basis went on indefinite strike seeking equal pay for equal work. Many said they were given 2 or 3 marks in science subjects although they had written well.
“If 74 per cent Commerce students can pass Inter [Grade 12 exam] then why Science only 30 and Arts 37 per cent passed? Primary teachers evaluated answers?” tweeted senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday. He demanded that the answer-sheets of the unsuccessful students be re-examined.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday called in Education Minister and BSEB Chairman Anand Kishore to his office to assess the situation. “We will not allow the career of the students getting ruined and do something to help them,” Kishore told the media after the meeting with the chief minister.
Students went on the rampage after around 70 per cent students failed the examination, the results of which were announced on Tuesday.
As per reports, more than 1.24 million took the examination this year but only 445,546 could clear the test and the rest 794,622 failed.
While only 30 per cent passed the Science stream, a little over 37 per cent emerged successful in the Arts stream. The Commerce students, however, fared a little better with their pass percentage being around 74.
