Protest over Class 11 results in Telangana after 2 students commit suicide

Hyderabad, Dec 17:  Two students allegedly committed suicide in Telangana on Friday after they failed in the intermediate first year (Class 11) examination, the results of which were declared by the state board on Thursday.

Blaming the government for the deaths, various student groups staged a protest at the office of the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) in Hyderabad, demanding that all the students be declared passed.

The student groups alleged that there were irregularities in the valuation of answer sheets which resulted in 51 per cent of students failing in the exams.

The protest by the NSUI, the SFI and the PDSU led to tension at TSBIE office in Nampally. The protestors demanded that the authorities cancel the results and declare all students as passed. Police arrested the protestors including NSUI state President Venkat Balmoor.

He alleged that two students committed suicide due to wrong decision by the government.

Balmoor said that they had requested the minister and Board Secretary not to conduct the exams due to the pandemic but they went ahead. He alleged that the government was playing with the future of students by making wrong decisions.

The NSUI leader demanded that the TSBIE pass all the students to intermediate second year (Class 12) by giving them minimum passing marks. He said if the government failed to give clarity over the issue by Saturday morning, they would intensify the protest.

The TSBIE conducted the exams for the first year from October 25 to November 3. A total of 4,59,242 students had appeared in the exams (both general and vocational courses. Only 49 per cent (2,24,012) students passed the exams.

The annual intermediate examinations could not be conducted in March-April this year due to Covid-19 situation and all the students of first year were promoted to second year. However, the government decided to conduct the exams in October-November.

The students had opposed the move and questioned the rationale behind as they were already promoted to the second year.

The government, however, had defended its decision. It pointed out that these students had not written the Class 10 exams as the same could not be conducted last year due to the pandemic. It argued that in case the exams are not conducted for second year due to the same situation, there will be no method to evaluate them and this will affect their academic future.