Telangana Intermediate first year students get ‘all-pass’ Christmas gift
HYDERABAD: Buckling under pressure from political parties and student organisations, the Telangana government on Friday declared that all the 2.36 lakh students who failed in the first year Intermediate examinations have been passed.
“All these students, who constituted 51 per cent of the 4.59 lakh candidates who appeared for the examination, are being declared as having cleared all their subjects. We are giving 35 marks in all the subjects in which they had failed. They have the option of going in for improvement,” Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy said at a news conference.
The Minister went to great lengths to defend the government and the Intermediate Board of Examination in conducting the first year exams as “students had to have a good foundation”. The decision to pass all the students who had failed in the first year examination is intended to lessen the strain on them as they are now preparing for the second year examinations which are also very close. “Henceforth, there would be no automatic promotion without examination. This is the last time and the students should keep this in mind,” she added.
The Minister pointed out that the government and the board had done what all was in their power to help the students get a good grasp of the syllabus through online and digital teaching methods, and yet many of them could not measure up.
“Neither the board nor the government, at any stage, was at fault. It pained us when fingers were pointed at us for the massive fail percentage. Intermediate examinations should not be a subject for them to derive political advantage,” she said.
She said there were instances of students not attempting any question and giving back an empty answer sheet. Then there is also the case of about 10,000 students getting 95 per cent marks in the examination.