Bihar board cancels licences of 68 schools

PATNA: In a bid to restore its credibility post the toppers’ scam, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on Tuesday cancelled the affiliation of 68 scamtainted higher secondary schools and colleges after finding their replies to showcause notices not satisfactory.

The notices had been issued to them after an inquiry committee submitted its report recently.

After the toppers’ scam surfaced, BSEB suspended the affiliation of 173 schools pending a high-level inquiry against them.

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor said, “The board is compelled to take stern action against the 68 schools after going through their replies to the showcause notices.” These 68 schools in question are among the 173 whose affiliation was earlier suspended by the board.

In the district-wise break-up of the schools whose affiliation was cancelled on Tuesday, Rohtas led the table with 11 schools. Patna (3), Nalanda (3), Bhabua (1), Buxar (6), Nawada (5), Aurangabad (5), Jehanabad (2), Arwal (8), Muzaffarpur (4), Siwan (1), Gopalganj (4), Lakhisarai (2), Khagaria (2), Jamui (1), Samastipur (2), Saharsa (4), Bhagalpur (1), Banka (2) and Purnia (1) were the other districts.

Kishor said the board had also decided to suspend the affiliation of 19 more schools after the probe report brought to light severe irregularities by them.

Of these 19, Bhojpur district has a major chunk of 12 while Samastipur and East Champaran have five and two schools respectively. “The message is loud and clear, that the BSEB will have zero tolerance for malpractices in the education system,” Kishor said.