Girls outshine boys in Bihar Class 12 exams

Patna: Girls have scripted a fairy tale of success in Bihar by emerging top in all the three streams of Grade 12 examinations conducted by the state-run Bihar School Examination Board.

The results were declared on Friday evening after several rounds of screenings given the fact that past results were mired in controversies and quite a few fake toppers were sent to jail for managing the results through fraudulent means.

While Sonali Kumari and Sugandha Kumari were declared state toppers in Science and Commerce streams respectively for scoring more than 94 per cent marks, Madhu Bharti emerged the topper in Arts. She obtained 92 percent marks. Strangely, none of the toppers are from Patna, Bihar capital; rather they are from rural areas.

What’s further interesting is that of the total 22 students who figure among top five in all the three streams, 13 are girls.

Teaching affected

But, what deserves special mention here is that all the three topper girls are from the poor families settled in villages. Sonali’s father is a cart-puller and Sugandha’s father is a small businessman whereas Madhu’s father is a teacher.

Yet another significant thing is that the girls achieved the tasks through self studies since the teaching remained badly affected all through the year in 2020 as all the educational institutions remained shut owing to COVID-19-induced lockdown and other restrictions. Thus, it was only the Online classes which were the lone option available for the students but lack of smartphones again proved the major hindrance on their way.

“I want to join the administrative service. I have planned to prepare for the UPSC examination,” said science topper Sonali who stays with her parents in a rented room in Nalanda district. She added, “I want to give better life to my parents for the sacrifice and extreme hard to ensure my study doesn’t get affected.”

Sonali’s father sells fruits on handcart whereas her mother prepares gram flour to earn a living. Talking about his hardship, Sonali’s father Chunnu Lal said lockdown broke the backbone of his family income as they remained locked in his two-room rented home. “I managed to bear the expense of my family with much difficulty but didn’t allow my daughter’s education to suffer. I gave a smartphone to my daughter so that she could study online,” Lal said.

Yearly floods

Commerce topper Sugandha Kumari who comes from Aurangabad district wants to become a chartered accountant whereas Arts topper Madhu’s dream is to become an Indian Administrative Service officer. Madhu hails from Khagaria, one of Bihar districts which faces flood devastations every year.

The Bihar government expressed happiness over brilliant performance of girls in the examination and has announced to give a cash reward of Rs100,000 to each three toppers in addition to laptops.

“The outstanding performance of the girls shows the success of government schemes and policies launched for the education of girls and women empowerment. Girls leading in all three streams have made the state proud,” Bihar education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary told the media.

A total of 1.34 million appeared at the grade 12 examination this year of which 1.04 million cleared the test. However, the overall pass percentage this year stood at 78.04 which is 2.40 per cent less than the previous year’s result.