Bihar: How toppers fail exam, RTI query exposes state education board

Read on to find out why a Bihar high school student needed RTI and the media's help to get the state education board to give him a corrected marksheet.

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Dhananjay Kumar (Photo: ANI/Twitter)
Dhananjay Kumar (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

In Short

  • A Bihar high school student scored 2/100 in his Class X Hindi paper
  • He used RTI to confirm that he'd actually scored 79 marks
  • It was only with the media's help that he was able to get the amended marksheet

When the results of this year's Class X exams were announced, Dhananjay Kumar learned he'd scored 96/100 in Mathematics, 80/100 in Science, and 79/100 in Sanskrit.

But in Hindi? 2/100.

Dhananjay knew that couldn't be right. So he applied for a re-evaluation.

A month later, when re-evaluation results came out, nothing had changed. His score was still 2/100.

But the boy from Rohtas was so sure the score was incorrect that he decided to use RTI. And when the Bihar State Education Board (BSEB) made a photocopy of his Hindi paper available, he was able to confirm what he already knew: He had scored 79 marks.

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He then asked officials at the board's office to correct the marksheet, but in vain. He ran from pillar to post, but he didn't get what he wanted.

After facing harassment from the board, Dhananjay approached the media.

Aftew a few local outlets reported the story, the board - finally - gave Dhananjay the amended marksheet.

Dhananjay went through all this just weeks after another student, Priyanka Singh from Saharsa, learned she'd scored 9 out of 100 in Sanskrit.

She challenged the score in the Patna High Court. In this case, too, the BSEB had made a blunder, and was asked to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh.