Telangana Exams: Re-Evaluation Ordered As 19 Students End Lives

Nineteen students across Telangana reportedly killed themselves as they failed or performed poorly in the exams.

19 students across Telangana reportedly committed suicide as they failed or performed poorly in the exams.

(Photo: The News Minute)

As protests against alleged bungling in declaration of Telangana Intermediate examination results continued for the fourth day, State Education Secretary B Janardhan Reddy on Thursday, 25 April, said those who failed in the examinations need not apply for recounting or re-verification.

The relief for the intermediate students came after reports of students allegedly killing themselves over failure in the exams emerged.

As many as 19 students reportedly killed themselves in a week’s span, after they were declared 'failed' in the exams the results for which were announced on 18 April.

Three more students allegedly killed themselves due to failure in the exams during the last 24 hours, news agency IANS had quoted police as saying on Wednesday.

Earlier, some student organisations had alleged that since 18 April, around 17 students across Telangana reportedly killed themselves as they performed poorly in the exams.

Some parents also said their children were meritorious and expressed shock that they'd failed or scored very less marks.

KCR Orders Revaluation

In the wake of students ending their lives and continuing protests by students and parents over the alleged goof-up in the paper evaluation, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday reviewed the situation with senior officials, and directed that a three-member committee be constituted to look into the allegations of irregularities in the declaration of the results.

Rao also directed officials not to charge any fee for recounting and reverification of papers of students who failed in the exams.

The advanced supplementary exam should be conducted and results declared at the earliest as students would have to appear for competitive exams like NEET and JEE, he had said.

He also asked officials to evolve a strategy for smooth conduct of exams and evaluation without any problem in future.

Opposition Parties Demand Judicial Inquiry

As protests entered the fourth day on Thursday, Opposition parties led by the Congress met Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan and demanded a judicial inquiry.

State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who led a delegation of leaders from the Congress, TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) met the Governor and demanded that an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh be paid to the families of the deceased.

He also sought the suspension of the authorities concerned besides the dismissal of education minister GJ Reddy for his alleged incompetence and casual approach.

The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) should take up recounting and revaluation for every student, who applies, without any fee and not just those who failed, he said.

The Governor assured to take efforts to ensure that the aggrieved students get justice, Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad.

A delegation led by BJP state unit president K Laxman also called on the Governor separately. Among other demands, they sought sacking of the education minister and suspension of the board secretary, BJP sources said.

At Least 1/3rd Fail

Expressing grief over the alleged suicides of some students who failed in the examination, Rao on Wednesday appealed to the students not to take the extreme step as failing in exam does not amount to failing in life.

“This year 9.74 lakh of students appeared for the Intermediate exam. Out of these, 3.28 lakh failed,” he said.

"Some students and their parents are of the opinion that during the process of addition of marks, mistakes took place resulting in less marks than expected and hence they failed," he said.

Observing that the government and also the students and their parents faced “headache” with regard to Intermediate examination and also EAMCET (Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine Common Entrance Test) every year, Rao said such a situation needs to be avoided.

It has to be examined whether the responsibility of conducting examinations could be entrusted to an autonomous body. The best practices elsewhere in the country needs to be studied for implementation in Telangana, he said.

(With PTI inputs.)