Students protest in Bihar over poor grading in class XII exam results

A day after the results of Bihar's plus two examination were announced in which 64% of students failed, agitated examinees on Wednesday protested outside the Council office here against poor pass percentage.

A large number of students gathered outside the Inter Council office to protest unsatisfactory results. A few of them also tried to climb the main gate but were prevented by police.

Agitating students gained strength after hundreds of youth workers of Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav joined the protestors. Members of ABVP, student wing of RSS and AISF, Left wing students organisation, sat on dharna at Kargil chowk in support of the examinees. They pelted stones at the council office following which police lathicharged them. About half-a-dozen students were detained by police for indulging in violent protest against irrational marking.

Even state's topper in science stream Khushboo Kumari complained of getting low percentage of 86.2 while she was expecting around 95%. Many others complained they have appeared in JEE Mains exam but due to irrational marking they could lose one year. Bihar Education Minister Ashok Choudhary appealed to the students not to indulge in violence and apply for compartmental examination which would be held soon.

Ashok Chaudhary Bihar Education Minister

The intention of the state government is to conduct cheating-free exam. We want that merit should come ahead. We just cannot pass undeserving students,"

Choudhary said he would talk to the officials for holding compartmental examination soon so that the affected students do not lose next academic session. Tightening conduct of state's plus two exam this year in the backdrop of infamous toppers scam in 2016 has resulted in 64 % examinees failing in Class 12 examination result which was declared on Tuesday. Only 30.11 % of students passed the test in the Science stream as the results, declared by the Bihar School Examination Board Chairman Anand Kishore, showed.

The results were dismal in the Arts stream too where a meagre 37% of the examinees could pass the test. In Commerce stream, however, the pass percentage was 73.76. Nearly 13 lakh students had appeared for the Plus-Two examination which was held this year. The pass percentage in all the three streams witnessed a sharp decline as compared to results last year and those held prior to it. In 2016, the state saw a shameful toppers scam.

The deep-rooted exam racket in plus two exam surfaced after Arts topper Ruby Roy in a TV interview described Political Science as "Prodikal science" which she said was related to cooking. Senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said the publication of results have exposed activities of Examination board.