There appears to be no end to the bungling by the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) as it once again failed a deceased student, hours after declaring her pass.
The BIE late Saturday night clarified that the class 11 students, who had committed suicide in April over failure in examination, was declared pass due to a "clerical error".
As the word spread that Anamika Arutla's family was contemplating action against BIE officials with the re-verification process showing she cleared the exam, the BIE once again changed her memorandum of marks on its website, reducing marks obtained in Telugu to 21 from 48.
The Board had earlier given her 20 marks in the subject and upset by the failure, this student of a college in Hyderabad had committed suicide.
The authorities said they stand by their earlier statement that none of the 23 students who committed suicide cleared the exams as re-verification of their answer sheets had not led to change in their status from fail to pass.
However, unsatisfied by BIE's stand, Anamika's family is planning to initiate action against the BIE. "We can't understand what the Board is doing. They have totally failed in their duty. We want justice," said Anamika's elder sister Udaya.
It was on Saturday that Udaya checked BIE website and found that her sister had passed the exam. The memorandum of marks showed her status to apassa¿ with marks in Telugu revised from 20 to 48.
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Udaya said her sister wanted to become an Army officer but the goof-up by the BIE had plunged the family into a crisis.
After watching the result of re-verification on the BIE website on Saturday, Anamika's family members have demanded action against the top Board officials.
A student of Class 11 at the Pragati Maha Vidyalaya in Hyderabad, Anamika was depressed after the BIE announced the results on April 18. Her marks-sheet showed that she passed in all subjects except Telugu, in which she secured only 20 marks.
She scored 64 marks in English, 55 in Economics, 67 in Civics and 75 in Commerce. Unable to come to terms with the failure, she committed suicide by hanging.
The BIE had declared the results of intermediate (Classes 11 and 12) examinations on April 18. Out of 9.43 lakh students who appeared in the exams, 5.6 lakh had cleared it. After the announcement of results, goof-up by the authorities in evaluation of answer scripts and processing the results came to light, triggering a huge public outcry.
After the matter reached the Telangana High Court, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on April 24 announced free re-verification of answer sheets of all failed students.
The BIE on May 27 announced results of re-verification of answer scripts of over 3.82 lakh students who had failed to obtain pass marks. Following this process, 1,137 students, who were earlier declared "failed", cleared the exams.
According to the BIE, of the 23 students committed who suicide and three students attempted suicide, re-verification of their answer scripts showed that there is no change from fail to pass.
The student bodies and NGOs claimed that 26 students had ended their lives.
Balala Hakkula Sangham's honourary President Achyuta Rao, who is a petitioner in the Telangana High Court, said he would request the court to take cognizance of Anamika's case and order action against BIE higher-ups for their negligence, which led to her death.
--IANS
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