PATNA: Students of lesser-known schools from smaller cities in Bihar have proved their talent again in the Bihar Intermediate exams, declared on Friday. Among them, three girls belonging to middle-class families have topped in all the streams- science, arts and commerce. The toppers said that they used the lockdown period to study hard which helped them in getting the top positions.
Sonali Kumari - one of the topper girls, who has topped in science stream, is the daughter of a thela-vendor of Nalanda district while Madhu Bharati - topper in Arts is the daughter of a teacher in Khagria. Sugandha Kumari - Commerce topper from Aurangabad is the daughter of a local fertiliser trader.
Almost all toppers, including the three, admitted that lockdown, in fact, posed a challenge to them but they converted the crisis in opportunity for completing revisions ahead of examinations. Madhu Bharti and Sonali Kumari now desire to study further aspiring to go in the Indian Administrative Service while Sugandha Kumari wants to pursue charted accountancy.
Educational experts said that the pandemic failed to dampen the spirits of students, especially girls. “The 80 -90% students,who come from rural and semi-urban areas have become more concerned towards their study aiming to civil services and other coveted posts compared to students of urban areas. As a result of this, students of rural background are doing better these days”, said noted educationist Dr Archana Kumari.
Bihar’s education minister Vijay K Chaudhary has also said that girls topping in the examinations in Bihar indicate a better change in society on the way for half of the population. “Their success indicates the success of CM Nitish Kumar’s schemes like cycle yojan, poshak yojna and financial assistances of Rs 25,000 to unmarried girls upon passing intermediate and Rs 50,000 for both married and unmarried girls on passing graduation,have started bringing tremendous positive changes”, Chaudhary said.
As per official figures, Madhu Bharti has topped in the arts stream by obtaining 463 marks, Sugandha Kumari obtained 471 and Sonali Kumari topped with 471 marks out of a total of 500 marks. Speaking to the media, Madhu Bharti in Khagaria said that she used the entire lockdown period in going through the courses and preparing models notes. “It (lockdown) was the best time for me to self-study”, she said adding that she aspires to become an IAS officer.
In the same way, Sugandha Kumari said that she did a wider study during the lockdown to get to the position. “I wish to tell other students who are next to appear in the intermediate examination that they should focus more on a wider study with positive mindsets”, she said.
Sonali Kumari stated that proper utilisation of lockdown periods along with regular study helped her to gain the top position. She also aspires to become an IAS officer. As per official data, a total of 6,43,678 girls had appeared in all streams of intermediate examination and of them, 5,18,591 have passed.