Jharkhand school education and literacy department minister Jagarnath Mahto on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, gifted cars to overall toppers of Class-10 and Class-12 board examinations, conducted by the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC), at state assembly premises in Ranchi.

The reason stated for giving such expensive gifts was to encourage government school students to excel.

The minister had announced the intention to gift cars to state toppers when matriculation results were released. The JAC on September 18 declared the names of the state toppers after a scrutiny of the mark sheets. 

A student of SRSSR high school, Saria Giridih, Amit Kumar, who emerged state topper in science stream of class-12 board examination, has turned out to be the overall state topper in all three streams. He scored 457 marks in aggregate out of the total 500 marks (91.4 percent).

A student of Netarhat residential school, Manish Kumar Katiyar was declared the overall state topper in class-10 board examination by the JAC. He scored 490 marks out of 500 (98 percent).

While handing over the keys, education minister and Jharkhand assembly speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto said, “The promise I made was fulfilled today. The objective of giving cars to toppers is only to encourage the children for academic betterment.”

The minister also recently took admission in class 11 to continue his education almost after 25 years.

The minister, who sponsored the gifts along with a few social organisations, announced, “From next year onwards, I have decided to bear all educational burden of state toppers for higher education.”

आज मेट्रिक-इंटर परीक्षा के टॉपर को मेरे एवं प्रदेश के शिक्षा मंत्री माननीय @Jagarnathji_mla के द्वारा कार की चाबी सौंपी गयी.

इस अनूठी पहल से प्रदेश के छात्रों में एक सकारात्मक ऊर्जा का विकास होगा.

प्रतिस्पर्धा की उन्नत विचार छात्रों को ज्यादा मार्क्स लाने के लिए प्रेरित करेगा। pic.twitter.com/zQVc0L9TWa

— Rabindranath Mahato (@Rabindranathji) September 23, 2020

Mahto also gifted a motorbike and several bicycles in his assembly constituency to meritorious students in a separate event at Bhandaridah in Bokaro district. He gifted a motorbike to the student who topped from Bokaro district in matriculation and 340 bicycles to the students, who scored more than 75 percent marks in aggregate.

Jharkhand cabinet on July 22 approved a proposal to award a commendation prize of Rs 1 lakh each to class 10 and 12 board exam toppers of JAC, CBSE and CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) boards in a bid to promote meritorious children to perform better in academics.

This year, 2,31,300 students in Jharkhand appeared for the class 2 examinations, out of which, 1,71,647 passed while 3,85,144 students appeared for class 10 examinations, out of which, 2,88,928 students cleared it.

Source: Hindustan Times

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