The performance of Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya students in this year's matric exam was good but the previous batches' was better.

Fewer students from the school made it to the top 10 over last year. Of 21 students in the top ten, 11 were from SAV against 29 and 42 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The students have grabbed second and third positions, while others were ranked lower .

The residential school, a dream project of chief minister Nitish Kumar, was gifted to the people of Bihar in August 2010. Built on the pattern of Netarhat Residential School in Jharkhand, the school admits 120 students into Class VI based on an entrance test and are provided free education, food and lodging accommodation till Class XII, every year.

In 2015, of 31 students who figured in the top ten of matriculation results, 29 were from SAV.

SAV's founding principal Shankar Kumar said: "Compared to the amount of money and resources the government is pumping into the institution, the performance is not as expected. The annual budget is Rs 10 crore. The average annual expenditure per student is Rs 1.5 lakh, much more than the average expenditure on government school students."

Sources said the school has failed to check migration of students after Class X. In the past two years (2015 and 2016), more than 50 per cent of students moved to other institutions after their matriculation.

Pallavi Bharti, who secured ninth position with 455 marks out of 500, said: "Studying four years at SAV was a good experience but the school has shortage of teachers in some subjects. I plan to pursue biology in Class XI but there is no good teacher for the subject here so I have decided to shift from Simultala."

Bhavya Kumari, who has secured 464 marks, too, is not keen on pursuing her Intermediate studies from Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya.

Bhavya said: "I am not sure whether I will study Class XI from Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya. I have left the decision to my parents."

Even the school administration is not very happy with this year's results.

Rajiv Ranjan, the principal of Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya, said: "The performance of the school is not as per our expectations. We will try to find out the reasons behind the poor performance."

Sources said the main reason behind the dismal performance of Simultala students was lack of discipline and dearth of good infrastructure facilities.

Even after seven years, the school is running from a rented accommodation.

According to sources, the popularity of Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya is on the wane.

This is a fact that is borne out from a decline in the number of applications.

In the first year of its inception (2010) when the entrance test was conducted for Class VI, the school received over 35,000 applications.

In the current year (2017), when the entrance test for three classes - VI, VII and IX - was held in April, less than 20,000 took the test.