What started off in a South Kolkata school is now becoming a rage in West Bengal: failed students in several academic institutions locked school gates Wednesday and raised slogans demanding they be given pass marks.
A day after 29 girl students of Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyalaya at Santoshpur in Kolkata -- who had failed in their class XII final test examination -- kept their teachers hostage for 21 hours forcing authorities to call for a review of their cases, similar protests were reported from at least three districts in West Bengal.
In Murshidabad district's Lalgola Shekhalipur High School, 60 students who failed their final test examinations in classes X and XII demanded they be allowed to sit for the secondary and higher secondary examinations.
"They tried to lock me in my room. When I ordered them to leave, they put a lock on the teachers' room from outside," said headmaster Mohammad Shahin Sharafi.
A few days ago, the students had agitated along with their guardians, asking for a review of their answer papers.
"We had then solved the problem after meeting their guardians. We also showed their answer scripts to the guardians. But today, students came with newspaper clippings of what happened in Santoshpur and started an agitation," Sharafi said.
The students dispersed after police were called.
Similar protests were seen at Gorabazar of the same district, where 32 students of Bijoykumar High School -- who had failed their examination -- staged a demonstration demanding a review of their results.
Girl students of Burdwan district's Krishnadevpur Balika Vidyalay also "stormed into the teachers' room, and kept the teachers under siege from noon Wednesday", said a school official.
Of the 117 students who appeared in the final examination, 27 had failed.
"We had submitted applications for being shown the answer scripts. We have all done well in the examinations. Why are we not being shown the scripts," asked a student.
Students of Jagatpur Rukmini Vidyamandir for Boys school in Kolkata's southern outskirts Behala began a protest Tuesday and even chased some teachers with sticks, demanding they be allowed to sit for the higher secondary examination despite failing the final test.
In another such incident, a group of students ransacked the furniture in Rishi Aurobindo Vidyaniketan of North 24 Parganas district on the same demand.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Council For Higher Secondary Education president Muktinath Chattopadhyay asked the authorities of Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyalaya to "take steps in the interest of the students, if possible. The steps may include re-examination".
"We respect the autonomy of the schools. We don't want to interfere. We are making a request. The school will take the final decision," he said.
Chattopadhyay said there were discrepancies in the results of the examinations. "The school has admitted this. So we have requested them to reconsider their decision," he said.
Faced with a demonstration by 18 students who had failed to clear the class 12 final test papers, authorities of Annadasundari Balika Vidyalay lost no time in declaring all of them eligible for the higher secondary examination.