HYDERABAD: As students’ confusion and agony continued unabated, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday stepped in, directing officials to conduct re-verification and re-counting of the answer scripts of the subjects in which students had failed, free of cost, and as early as possible.
Though the task is monumental, as officials would have to re-verify and re-count answer scripts of close to 3.28 lakh students, the chief minister elected the hard way to restore the credibility of the Intermediate board, which has taken a hard knock.
He also asked the officials to accept requests for re-counting and re-verification from students who passed the exams, after collecting the requisite fee from them.
The chief minister’s direction came against the backdrop of a Telangana High Court order that sought for the board and the government to re-verify the answer scripts of all students who failed, and asked them to file an affidavit by Monday on how much time they would need for this.
Rao also wanted re-verification and re-counting to be completed as early as possible, and conduct of advanced supplementary examinations for those who failed so they would not lose a precious academic year. The chief minister entrusted this responsibility to Education Secretary B Janardhan Reddy.
Rao was categorical in saying re-verification and re-counting should be done at the earliest, in view of the need of students to appear for entrance exams such as NEET and JEE. He also wanted the advanced supplementary examinations to be held and results declared as soon as possible.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was unhappy over the bungling of the Intermediate examination by officials, and wanted a foolproof mechanism to be put in place. He threw up the idea of entrusting the conduct of examination to an autonomous institution to prevent goof-ups.
“The government is facing problems each time Intermediate examinations and EAMCET tests are conducted. It has to be examined whether the responsibility of conducting examinations could be entrusted to an autonomous body,” the CM said.