M A I N   N E W S

Class XII topper, only for a day
Rajmeet Singh & Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Mohali/Moga, June 1
Citing error in compilation of result, the Punjab School Education Board today withdrew the name of Moga girl Mohini Singh from the toppers’ list in the Class XII result declared yesterday. In the humanities stream, the girl had been placed at the first position, along with Nega Jagga of GTB Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Malout (Muktsar).

The anomaly came to light at the time of posting subject-wise marks on the board website. While the board authorities had claimed that the result was declared 16 days in advance despite introducing the bar coding (a system in which each candidate was assigned subject-wise secret code), the official to their utter surprise found that the topper had erroneously been given 86 marks out of the total of 75 in General Punjabi.

Sources in the board do not rule out the possibility of more such cases coming to light. “Once the result sheets reach the candidates, more such mistakes would come to light”, said the sources.

Reacting to the development, Mohini said she was disheartened on coming to know that she was mistakenly given more marks by the board but was still hopeful that she would definitely come in the top 20 of the merit list despite board’s mistake.

“No matter, it will not be easy to forget this chapter in my life but I will study hard with more dedication in the college so as to perform better in future,” she said.

Rescinding her name from top of the merit list, the board authorities have marked an internal inquiry into the case. For the time being, Mohini’s result has been withheld and rechecking along with re-totalling of marks has been ordered into her result. PSEB Chairman Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon said the position regarding the candidate would be made clear in the next two days. For the time being, her result has been withheld. “Till the candidates get the result sheets, the result should be treated as provisional,” he said.

The Chairman said scrutiny of the result (before declaring) was not done as it could affect secrecy of the entire process. The board authorities have also claimed that withholding of Mohini’s result would not affected the order of merit as two girls shared the first position. As such, Neha Jagga of GTB Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Malout (Muktsar), who secured 422 out of the total of 450 marks, now alone occupies the first position in the merit list.

Sonia Harsh, Principal of SD Senior Secondary Girls’ School, Moga, said she was stunned to see error in the Mohini’s marksheet. This was an error on part of the state education board, she said.