Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

In Bihar, you can crack JEE but fail class 12 board exams

- Nandini letters@hindustant­imes.com

ANGRY STUDENTS SAT ON PROTEST OUTSIDE THE OFFICE OF THE BIHAR SCHOOL EXAMINATIO­N BOARD FOR THE SECOND DAY ON THURSDAY

PATNA: Many students who had cracked the joint entrance examinatio­n (JEE)-Mains examinatio­n for admission to premier engineerin­g institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the National Institute of Technology (NIT) have flunked the Bihar intermedia­te examinatio­ns, the results of which were declared in Patna on Tuesday.

Sample this: Vivek Kumar cracked the JEE Mains, with a score of 109 out of 360 under the reserved category, but failed the Bihar board intermedia­te exams, having secured 12 out of 60 in physics theory.

“I had done well in the exams. My overall score was 273 out of 500 (main five subjects), but I don’t know how the entire evaluation has been done. I had not done as bad to deserve just 12/60 in physics theory,” said Vivek.

Anuj Kumar, another successful candidate in the JEE (Mains), with a rank of 28,000, had also failed the class 12 exams. Kumar got 12/60 in physics and 17/60 in chemistry theory papers.

Shubham Sharma also qualified the JEE (Mains), with a rank of 78,000 in the reserved category, but failed the Class 12 exams, having got 06/60 in physics theory.

Similarly, Ravi Kumar of Bihar’s Siwan district had also cleared the JEE (Mains), but had failed the Class 12 exams, having scored poorly in English and chemistry.

Sahul Kumar, who made the JEE (Mains), with a score of 65 the cut-off under OBC category being 49 – was not assigned marks in any of the six subjects in the marksheet uploaded on its website by the Bihar board.

Ompriya of Jamui district had made the cut in the KL Marine entrance examinatio­n, but failed the Bihar board exams, having got 34/100 in chemistry — 10 in theory and 24 in practical — out of 100 marks. The students staged a protest outside the office of the Bihar School Examinatio­n Board (BSEB) in Patna for the second day on Thursday. They apprehende­d that answer copies could have got mixed up during evaluation. The BSEB had introduced barcoding to check manipulati­on, after the intermedia­te toppers scam last year, resulting in Ruby Roy losing her intermedia­te (arts) toppers’ tag.

The results this year came as a shock to many. Out of the 12.40 lakh students, who took the Class 12 or intermedia­te examinatio­n conducted by the BSEB, just 4.37 lakh or 35.25% managed to clear the board exam. This was a drastic climbdown from last year, when 11.55 lakh students appeared in the exam and 7.18 lakh or 62.19% cleared it. This year, only 30.11% students cleared the Class 12 or intermedia­ry science (ISc) exam. Last year, the pass percentage of ISc students was 67.06 and in 2015 89.32% students cleared the exam.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has said suspect answer books would be re-evaluated. Most of these students who had taken the JEE (Advanced) exams on May 21 and were awaiting the final result, are now hoping for some miracle to happen after the CM’s assurance.

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