HYDERABAD: In a major goof-up, several students who had appeared for the IPE 2019 were shocked to find that they had been marked absent for first/second language examinations despite having appeared for it. What’s worse is that these students would now be considered to have failed in the exams due to the compulsory nature of these subjects.
Some students have also complained that the grand total of marks printed on the memo did not add up to the individual score secured in each subject. College associations and parents have flayed the TSBIE for making lapses such as this, particularly at a time when students are vulnerable to suicides over failure in exams. In fact, barely hours after the results were announced on Thursday, two students from the city have committed suicide after they failed to clear the examination.
While the TSBIE has a provision for recounting and re-verification of the answer scripts in lieu of a fee, marking students ‘absent’ when they have actually appeared for the examination was callousness on part of the Board, they alleged.
In addition to this, the memo has a new vocabulary this year, furthering confusion among students and parents. Until last year, absenting students were marked as ‘AA’ in the memo, but this year, students who were ‘absent’ for first language examinations were marked as ‘AF’ and the ones for second language as ‘AP’. “If the Board was not ready to release the results they should have made use of a couple of more days rather than doing a shoddy job. By marking students who wrote the exam absent for the compulsory subjects, so many students have failed,” said P Madhusudhan Reddy, president of Government Intermediate Colleges Association.
TSBIE blames pvt colleges
While admitting that the mark sheets of three students erroneously show the ‘absent’ status despite having written the exam, a higher official from the Board told Express that the problem was mostly confined to Medchal district, with just a few cases reported. He said the mistakes were caused by the carelessness of colleges that failed to send proper numbers from the blank bar code sheets.