Education board must change: K Chandrasekhar Rao

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday ordered free reverification and recounting of answer sheets of 3.28 lakh students who had been failed in the Intermediate examination results due to an alleged botch up by the Intermediate Board.

The Chief Minister’s Office clarified that the 3.28 lakh students who have failed need not apply either for reverification or for recounting, and in the event of students who have passed and want re-counting or reverification of their answer sheets, this should be done as per prevailing norms and regulations.

While reviewing the controversy over the Intermediate examination results with senior officers of the education department and education minister at Pragathi Bhavan, the Chief Minister instructed that the reverification and recounting process be expedited and completed as early as possible and the supplementary examinations be conducted speedily to ensure students do not lose an academic year.

Expressing shock at the suicides by students who failed in the exams, Mr Rao said, “It is unfortunate and saddening to note that a few students who failed in the Intermediate examination committed suicide. I felt extremely unhappy and deeply hurt over such incidents. Intermediate education is not the whole life. Failing in an examination does not amount to failing in life. Life is precious.”

He said there will always be plenty of opportunities to succeed. “Each individual should make use of opportunities based on interest and capabilities and identify a profession of their liking. They should stand up in life and be courageous.”

While entrusting the responsibility of the reverification and recounting of answer sheets to the education secretary B. Janardhan Reddy, the chief minister instructed officers to evolve a strategy for smooth conduct of examinations and evaluation in future.

The officials informed the chief minister that this year 9.74 lakh students appeared for the intermediate examination and of these, 3.28 lakh failed and some students and their parents are of the opinion that this was due to mistakes in counting of marks and evaluation of the papers.

At this juncture, the chief minister pointed out that “the government is facing problems every time intermediate examinations and Eamcet are conducted. The government, students, and their parents face headaches every time. This needs to be avoided.”

“The best practices should be studied for implementing in our state. In future examinations are to be held in such a manner that there would not be any problems,” he said.

More papers to be reevaluated this year

Every year 10,000 to 12,000 students apply for reevaluation and reverification to the Telangana state Intermediate Board.

A senior officer told this newspaper that last year there were 10,000 applications which all had to be checked by the department.

“Since the last five years, there has been an increasing number for re-evaluation and re-verification. Hence the problem has been on-going and culminated in a major one this year,” the officer said. The exact number of applications this year is not known but it’s more than last year according to sources.

The education department, which is now going to undertake the major process of re-verification and re-evaluation of the answer sheets, has to ensure that systems are followed properly to get the correct results.