HYDERABAD: Despite Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education’s (TSBIE) attempt to downsize the controversy over the alleged fudging of results, scores of students and parents staged a protest in front of Vidya Bhavan in Hyderabad, on Saturday.
Alleging irregularities in paper correction, they demanded that the Board acknowledge its lapse. Apart from marking present students as absent, cases of non-addition of practical marks of at least 500 students have also come to the fore.
Further, district toppers and students who did exceptionally well in the first year have secured only single-digit marks in the final year. At least 11 such first-year toppers failed in the second year.
Sumith Reddy, from a college in Maredpally, secured 60 out of 60 in physics in his first year, and was shocked to see that he scored only 16 marks this time. “I got 85 per cent in the first year, and this time, I flunked in physics and maths, with 16 and 12 marks respectively,” he said while protesting against the TSBIE.
Sumith recently cleared the JEE Mains with a good score and was hoping to join a good engineering college. “But with a supplementary star mark on my mark sheet, which college would want to take me? All my efforts through the year to clear JEE have gone down the drain,” said the dejected teen.
J Anusha, who failed in economics and commerce, faces a similar plight. A Student St Mary’s Junior College, Basheerbagh, she planned to go to Canada to pursue an undergraduate course on a scholarship, but is now worried about her future.
Similarly, G Navya, of Chintaguda village in Mancherial district, got zero marks in Telugu in the second-year Intermediate exam, after securing 98 marks in the subject in her first year.
TSBIE’s reputation at stake?
The goof up has not only depressed students and also angered parents and college management who have demanded the resignation of secretary A Ashok.With around seven suicides reported across the state since Thursday when the results were announced they are worried about the mental health of the students.
“Intermediate is a crucial stage and Board has to be very careful. This time however there has been a serious lapse. Board and government should now take some corrective measures of the people will lose their confidence in the Board, “ said G Satish, honorary president, Telangana Private Junior Colleges.
T Ramachandran, an auto driver, said he has been making rounds of the TSBIE office since Friday to understand what can be done to rectify the marks. “My daughter is a good student and secured 91 per cent in the first year. But this time she got single digit in chemistry. She hasn’t stopped crying or has eaten properly since Friday. If anything happens to her, will the Board take responsibility? he questioned.
‘Allegations baseless’
Reiterating that there were no lapses by the Board in correction or issuance of marks memos, TSBIE secretary A Ashok, has called all such allegations “false and baseless rumours’.
Andhra Rajya Sabha MP’s nephew among 10 students to commit suicide after results
Dejected by their performance, as many as 10 students across Telangana killed themselves within a day of the results being announced. One of them was the nephew of Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh CM Ramesh. The youngster jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a residential building in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
The TSBIE has a helpline for students, but it has failed to stop the suicides, which are common during exams and after the results are announced. Academicians are not convinced about the efficacy or efficiency of the helpline. Calling it a half-baked approach, G Satish, principal of a private junior college in Hyderabad, alleged that the helpline was non-operational most of the time