Patna: More than 200,000 students who failed their grade 10 and grade 12 examinations held this year have been passed by the state-run Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) by allotting them grace marks, something which has never happened before. The government has cited the COVID-19 pandemic behind showering the bounty on the students.
All the students passed by the BSEB with the consent of the state education department had failed in one or two subjects and had applied for the compartmental examinations. However, the exams were delayed owing to surging virus cases in the state followed by several rounds of lockdowns.
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After much deliberation, the state government finally decided to pass all 214,287 students who had applied for compartmental examinations after failing to clear tests in one or two subjects. It is, however, not clear how much grace marks were allotted to the failed students.
“Waiting for the situation to get normal and then hold compartmental examinations would have delayed results to November-December which meant loss of one year for the students. So we decided to pass such students. The decision is purely in students’ interests,” BSEB chairman Anand Kishore told the media on Friday.
One-time exemption
Bihar education minister Krishna Nandan Verma, however, said the move is only a one-time exemption. “Awarding grace marks to the failed students is a one-time exemption due to COVID-19,” the minister explained
A total of 208,147 students had failed in one or two subjects in grade 10 examination while 132,486 students had failed in grade 12 examination held this year. Of them, all those who applied for compartmental tests have been passed much to the relief of the students.
Both these two examinations have been full of controversies in Bihar. Recently in 2016, the government came under fire after a grade 12 student Ruby Rai who couldn’t properly spell “political science”, one of her subjects, was declared the topper in the arms stream. She also failed the re-test conducted by the BSEB after the story hit media headlines.
Department officials
Similar thing had happened with science topper Saurabh Shreshtha who failed the re-test. Eventually, a case was registered against them and they were sent to jail.
A number of examination department officials, examination superintendent, evaluation centre superintendent, invigilators, examiners and officials of Vishun Rai College, Vaishali from where all the two toppers had appeared in the exam were also accused in the FIR registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and jailed.
The state education department also had come under fire after a video of the guardians and relatives climbing up to the multi-storeyed examination centre and supplying chits to the students during grade 10 had gone viral in the social media. The extensive media coverage eventually forced the government to cancel the examination.
