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Amid protests, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar gives clean chit to BSEB over conduct of exam
The CM said the government had taken it as a challenge to conduct future examinations in a fair manner in view of the toppers’ scam for the second consecutive year
PATNA In the face of growing protests from students across the state over intermediate results, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday gave a clean chit to the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), reiterating the board’s stand that there was nothing wrong with conduct of exam and evaluation of copies.
Defending the board’s action, he said it was the BSEB, which revealed that the intermediate arts topper (Ganesh Kumar, now in jail) was overage. “There is an internal mechanism in place since the tenure of Madan Mohan Jha, former education secretary, to reevaluate answersheets of 10 toppers. There is no discrepancy in evaluation. However, action will be taken against those who are responsible for the mess,” said Kumar while talking to mediapersons after the weekly Jan Samvad event here.
About the poor show of students in the examination that saw about 65% students unable to get through, the CM said the government had taken it as a challenge to conduct future examinations in a fair manner in view of the toppers’ scam for the second consecutive year.
“There is no ideal situation anywhere and there is a lot left to be desired here,” he said, referring to how a candidate from Haryana topped the Tamil language examination for recruitment of postmen of Tamil Nadu postal circle. A CBI inquiry has been ordered into the postal department’s examination.
“We don’t believe in hiding our shortcomings. Rather, we go deep into it to find the solution. We learnt from the last year’s embarrassment and managed fair conduct of the examination and genuine evaluation of copies,” said Kumar, while blaming the people of Bihar for tarnishing the state’s image.
Attributing the dip in results to tight examination and genuine evaluation of copies to avoid the last year’s embarrassment, Kumar said the pass percentage had dropped to 15 in 1996 when the examination was conducted under direction of the Patna High Court to check cheating.
The CM said the department was taking a holistic view of the issues coming to the fore after this year’s examination and the officials were preparing an “action plan” to improve the quality of teaching. However, the officials and teachers who failed to perform their duty will be taken to task, he added.
It may be noted that students’ protests have erupted across the state, including the capital city, ever since the results were declared by the board on May 30.
BLURB
The CM said the government had taken it as a challenge to conduct future examinations in a fair manner in view of the toppers’ scam for the second consecutive year
QUOTE
We don’t believe in hiding our shortcomings. Rather, we go deep into it to find the solution. We learnt from the last year’s embarrassment and managed fair conduct of the examination and genuine evaluation of copies.
NITISH KUMAR, chief minister
