On June 6, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) announced its class 12th intermediate results for all the three streams—Science, Arts and Commerce. Topper Kalpana Kumari who also scored the highest in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has reasons to celebrate. She is a Science stream student who scored 434 marks in BSEB class 12 exams and a 99.99 percentile in the national level entrance test for medical courses. However, after the BSEB results announcement, Kalpana lands into controversy. Everyone is questioning on her attendance. The local news headlines hints if Kalpana Kumari’s achievement is another topper scandal in making.

As per sources, Kalpana was preparing for NEET from Aakash Institute in Delhi for two consecutive years. This has triggered several questions on her attendance. Kalpana was in a regular classroom course at the Institute and at the same time she was also a regular student of YKJM College Tariyani in Bihar. And to sit in the board exams conducted by the Bihar Board, any candidate must have a 75 percent attendance. Questions that arises—How can any individual pursue two different courses in two different states at a time? If Kalpana was taking coaching from Aakash Institute in Delhi, then who was marking her attendance? As the hullabaloo raised regarding topper Kalpana’s attendance, Bihar Board officials clarified, and they informed that BSEB does not have any provision of minimum attendance in schools for the board candidates.

It is quite surprising to learn that a state board does not have any minimum attendance requirement for its regular students. Kalpana’s comments on the matter remains unavailable. Meanwhile, in a video which was shared by Aakash Institute on social media, topper Kalpana Kumari said that she pursued and was in “Two-year regular classroom course.” There is no doubt in Kalpana’s intellect, but if the above doubts are valid, fingers will be pointed at Bihar Board’s mismanagement. Because this is not the first incident of topper scandal at Bihar. In the past, Bihar has seen some embarrassing cases, where ‘toppers’ were exposed to have scored well due to malpractices and irregularity of BSEB. 2016 toppers Ruby, Rai, Saurabh Shreashtha and 2017 topper Ganealibresh Kumar are some of scandalous cases which demonstrated the board’s mismanagement. And we sincerely hope that Kalpana Kumari is not another victim of Bihar Board callousness.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 07, 2018 11:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).