As much as 83% of the candidates who appeared for the Teachers’ Eligibility Test in Bihar this June failed to clear the exam, India Today reported on Thursday.

The results declared by the Bihar School Examination Board on Thursday showed that only 16.4% of those who applied to teach classes 1 to 5 and 17.8% of candidates for classes 6 to 8 passed the test.

Of the 43,000 candidates who appeared for the first test, 7,038 cleared it. Only 30,113 of the 1,68,700 candidates passed the second test.

The state of education in Bihar has been under the lens ever since an education scam marred the state board’s reputation in 2016.

Earlier this year, nearly half the students failed to pass the Class 10 board examinations in Bihar, and the figure for the Class 12 examination was 35%.

The 2016 Bihar board topper scam

Last year, India Today posted a video of an interview with the Class 12 arts topper who scored 90% but claimed that political science was subject about the “preparation of food”. Similarly, another student could not answer basic questions about the science subjects he topped in.

Subsequently, Bihar ordered a re-exam on June 3 for the 14 students who scored the highest in different subjects, but the arts topper did not show up. She later failed the retest and was arrested. In January, the forensic science laboratory investigating the scandal said experts had written her examination papers.