Failed By Bihar Board Twice, Class 10 Student Goes To Court, Gets Rs 5 Lakh Compensation
Courtesy: Hindustan Times, NDTV | Image Courtesy: India.com, Livecities
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A student in Bihar flunked in two subjects in her class 10 final examinations this year, but she challenged the results in court. She got her answer script rechecked and came out with flying colours, said a report by the Hindustan Times.

Investigations revealed the teenager’s answer-scripts were mixed up with someone else’s papers, leading to her poor marks – nine out of hundred in Sanskrit and 29 from a total of 80 in the science theory exam. The Bihar School Examination Board (BESB) admitted its mistake, brought out her original papers and revised the marks. After revision, she got 80 in Sanskrit and 61 in the theory exam for science.


Investigation of the High Court

Before the investigation, it was insisted several times that the initial marks given to Priyanka Singh of Saharsa were correct. Also, nothing was found wrong while her answer-scripts were scrutinised. The revised result came after a prolonged battle in the Patna High Court. The new result came late for Priyanka as the enrollments in most of the institutions have closed by now.

The court has promised to pay Rs 5 lakh as a penalty to Priyanka as a measure against the flub. This as well could have remained neglected, had Priyanka not cross-checked the marks. Owing to Priyanka’s confidence and perseverance, she sought the court’s intervention for reevaluation even after almost 50% of the candidates had failed to clear the examinations, this year.


Re-evaluation and moving the High Court

Priyanka is a student of the government-run DD High School. The board had failed Priyanka in the two subjects, with 29 in science and 4 in Sanskrit. After receiving the results, she was quick to figure out that there were some mistakes and immediately applied for the reevaluation. She got another shock when the re-evaluation results came in.

Her marks in Sanskrit rose from 4 to 9, but the examiner reduced her marks in science from 29 to 7. This was when Priyanka approached the Patna High Court.

According to a report by the NDTV, the court was not confirmed about the authenticity of the case and asked the student to deposit Rs 40,000 in the court, wondering she would forfeit the money if this were a facetious case. After paying the deposit amount, the court ordered the actual answer sheet to be produced.

After producing the answer sheets in court, the tables turned. When Priyanka saw the papers, she claimed that the papers were not hers. She even said that the handwriting wasn’t hers, the court further cross-checked and soon found out that her claims were true. Priyanka was awarded 80 marks in science and 61 in Sanskrit.

Apart from awarding her compensation, the court also told the education board to order an inquiry into the case. Taking a hint from the plight of the students who might have faced the same fate, the bench of Justice Chakradhari Charan Singh, “I further shall direct that the board shall not destroy the answer sheets of annual secondary examination, 2017, till specific order is passed by the court in this regard,” said the report by the Hindustan Times.

The Logical Indian Take

Bihar board examinations had previously made it to the headlines when parents had been climbing up the walls of examination centres to pass cheat to their wards taking their board examinations. Last year, the state received flak from all quarters when after it turned out that the toppers in Class 12 had hired people to write the exam for them.

Thousands of Class 12 students took it to the streets when the board had failed more than 60% of the students this year. The high failure numbers, however, were attributed to new security measures taken up by the government to curb cheating such as the use of answer sheets with barcodes on them.

Bihar is one name which comes to one’s name when we talk about such goof-ups where due attention is not paid during the correction of test papers. Generalisation is surely not the answer, as such slipshod work is prevalent when it comes to the context of UP, Jharkhand, Jharkhand as well. It is wrong on the part of the teachers to be sloppy while correcting the board examination test papers. Such mix up in papers could adversely affect the future of children.

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Editor : The Logical Indian

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