After days of statewide protests and more than 10 students killing themselves allegedly owing to discrepancies in the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) exam results, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao finally conducted a review meeting on the issue at his official residence on Wednesday.
According to a statement from the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), KCR instructed officials to carry out free re-evaluation and recounting of papers for students who have failed their intermediate exams, a state board equivalent of class 11 and 12 in Telangana administered by the TSBIE.
Since the results were declared on April 18, students and parents across the state have been protesting errors in the results, due to which many students seem to have received much lower marks than they deserved, even failing the exams in some cases.In some cases, students were marked absent, even when they attended the exam. The results have caused distress to many students, with more than 10 deaths being reported this week alone.
“Out of the 9.74 lakh students who wrote the inter exam this year, 3.28 lakh students have failed. Some students and parents believe that due to some mistakes in calculation of marks, students have received lesser marks than they actually deserve. In order to address their misgivings, students who have failed the exam must be provided free re-evaluation … These reverification and recounting processes must be completed as early as possible. Since students are yet to give national entrance exams like JEE and NEET, the advanced supplementary exams must also be conducted as soon as possible, and results must be declared,” KCR was quoted as saying, in the CMO statement.
The responsibility of overseeing the re-evaluation and recounting of papers, and conducting advanced supplementary exams has been entrusted` to Education Secretary B Janardhan Reddy. The meeting was also attended by Education Minister G Jagadish Reddy, Education Secretary B Janardhan Reddy, Board of Intermediate Secretary A Ashok, Telangana government Chief Adviser Rajiv Sharma and other CMO officials.
The CM also reportedly questioned the officials regarding the process of selection of agencies that were outsourced for data and result processing in the exams. According to the statement, the officials responded by saying that the tenders were invited through an e procurement process, with the organisation quoting the minimum rate being selected.
Officials also claimed that industry experts had evaluated the competence of the organisation before awarding the contract and that all norms were followed in the process. In the past few days, several questions have surfaced regarding the legitimacy of the process through which the firm Globarena was given the contract.
The CM also remarked upon the need to find better ways to conduct exams without such mishaps. “Apart from Intermediate, even in other exams like EAMCET there have been such discrepancies, causing distress to the government, students and parents. This situation must be avoided. We must consider possibilities of hiring autonomous bodies to conduct exams. We must study best practices of conducting exams in other countries and other states, and implement those in our state. We have prevented many disasters and solved many problems in the state. Avoiding problems in conducting exams is not impossible,” KCR was quoted as saying
The CM also expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of students whose results showed that they had failed the exams.
“The student suicides are extremely unfortunate. Failing in exams is not the same as failing in life. There are still many opportunities in life even if you fail in exams. One must utilise opportunities based on one’s skills and interests, and excel at work. Your death will hurt your parents. I request all students to not take their lives,” said KCR.
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