43,000 answer sheets go missing in Bihar, principal arrested

Patna: Authorities in Bihar have postponed the release of Grade 10 examination results after the answer-sheets of thousands of students went missing.

According to education department officials, around 43,000 evaluated answer-sheets of students had mysteriously disappeared from the strong room of SS Girls’ Senior Secondary High School located in Gopalgnaj district.

The police have arrested the school principal and two other people in connection with the incident so far.

The entire story came to light after Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) authorities sought the evaluated answer-sheets of the students who figured among top 25 students to review their marking before the results were announced.

The move was the part of the plan to detect “fake” top students and avoid any further embarrassment. Some of the meritorious students hailed from Gopalganj district too and hence a special messenger was sent to the school to get the answer sheets of those students.

Officials were surprised to find out that the answer-sheets of some top students, which the messenger had been sent to fetch, were missing.

A massive search operation launched thereafter later found a total of 213 bags missing from the strong room of the SS Girls’ Senior Secondary High School.

Officials said each bag contained 200 evaluated answer-sheets. In light of this, authorities postponed the declaration of the Class 10 examination result by a week while a thorough, high-level investigation has also been ordered.

‘Conspiracy’

“The missing answer-sheets are a part of the conspiracy to defame the BSEB. We have ordered a thorough probe into the entire episode and [the] truth will come out soon,” BSEB chairman Anand Kishore told the media on Wednesday.

School principal Pramod Kumar Srivastava is part of those arrested in connection with the case.

“A police team has been constituted to investigate the matter. I am personally monitoring it. The focus of investigation is how and when the copies disappeared,” Gopalganj District Superintendent of Police Rashid Zaman told the media.

This is the third time in quick succession that the state school board has come under fire.

Last year, Grade 12 Arts top student Ganesh Kumar, 24, was found to be 42 years old and a father of two children.

In 2016 too, Bihar suffered further embarrassment when Grade 12 Arts top student Ruby Rai had no idea about what subjects she had been taught in the classrooms and spelt Political Science as “Prodikal Science”.

Courtesy: Gulf News