PATNA, March 24 -- Girls dominated the Bihar intermediate results announced by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on Monday. There are 19 girls among 26 students in the top 5 in all the three streams -- Science, Arts and Commerce. The overall pass percentage was 85.19 - 84.09% for boys and 86.23 % for girls. A total of 13.04 lakh students had appeared for the annual intermediate exam. Overall, 5,16,928 students got first division, 5,11,744 students secured second division, and 82,425 passed with third division, a statement issued by the Bihar School Examination Board said. Samastipur boy Aditya Prakash Aman, who left Bihar's Simultala Awasiya Vidyalay after Class 10 to pursue his intermediate from Upgraded Secondary School, Pandh (Dalsinghsarai, Samastipur), topped in Science, with 96.20% marks. However, in the top 5, there were four girls out of six students, with the second and third position going to Sakshi Kumari (Sitamarhi) and Sapna Kumari (Nawada). The toppers in both Arts and Commerce were girls. In Arts, Gaya's Nishi Kumari (95.80%) got the first position, while Sitamarhi's Siddhi Shikha, Lakhisarai's Chandradeep Kumar and Purnea's Md Lucky Ansari (all 95.60%) were tied on the second position. In the top five, there are 13 students. In Commerce stream, Aditi Kumari (96%), Mahi Kumari (95.20%) and Nishika Shree (95%), all from Patna, bagged the first, second and third position. Among the seven students in top five, six were girls and five were from Patna. For the second year in succession, there is none in the list of toppers in any of the three streams from the Simultala Awasiya Vidyalay (SAV), a dream project of chief minister Nitish Kumar started in 2010 to provide quality education to talented students, who invariably don't have access to well-equipped schools in rural areas. All the top positions, which also have handsome awards attached, have been bagged by hardworking students, especially girls, from lesser known government schools in rural areas, pointing to the increased craving and result of government's support mechanism for education to girls. Education minister Sunil Kumar released the results and said that the dominating performance by girls was a reflection of the government's continued focus on women's empowerment and education sector since 2005. He also congratulated the BSEB for early results, as it would benefit the students. Board chairman Anand Kishor took pride in the fact that for the eighth year in succession, Bihar board was the earliest among school boards to publish results. Interestingly, the Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the two national school boards, have their exams stretching up to mid-April, and the results would come in May, as always....