Students, parents swarm education board office seeking justice

Anxious students and parents continued to throng the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) office here Tuesday, demanding justice for students declared failed in the recent exams, even as a petition was filed in Telangana High Court over the matter.

City-based child rights NGO Balala Hakkula Sangham moved the Telangana High Court, seeking directions to the government to conduct a detailed probe into the entire process of declaration of results and "errors" committed in the process. It also sought action against officers and employees of TSBIE, who it alleged, were responsible for the suicides of students from April 19, who had failed, and also provide ex-gratia to the family members of these children. The High Court posted the matter to April 29.

In a related development, TSBIE extended the last date for fees submission for supplementary exams and applications towards re-verification, re-counting from April 25 to April 27 following requests by students and their parents. Meanwhile, scores of members of student organisations and other outfits were taken into preventive custody, after police foiled their attempts to stage protest demonstrations near the office and Ministers quarters over the issue.

The organisations said 17 students across Telangana, including the nephew of Telugu Desam Party Rajya Sabha MP C M Ramesh reportedly committed suicide as they failed in the Intermediate examination. The results were announced on April 18. Many students and parents have been agitating against TSBIE, alleging "goof up" in valuation and have demanded a thorough re-verification of papers of those who had failed. In the wake of protests by different political parties and student organisations, a large police contingent has been deployed near the Board of Intermediate Education office.

The Telangana government constituted a three member committee Monday to inquire into the handling of the process by Globarena Technologies, a private IT firm roped in by it. The agitating parents and students alleged that injustice was done to them and they were unable to apply for re-verification of answer sheets online. They said they had been coming to the TSBIE office for the past three days, demanding revaluation, only to be told by officials to do it online. the TSBIE website is not functioning, they said. The gates to the BIE office were now closed and police were not allowing them inside, the parents said.

"The government is not responding. We want justice. If revaluation is done, definitely our children will get higher marks," the worried parents said. They also demanded speeding up revaluation process,setting up a separate counter to handle it and that answer sheets be handed over to them. "Our children are disappointed. When will this matter be solved? The children have to study for other entrance exams. They are mentally suffering," the parents said.

"I have written the exams perfectly. But the results show I've scored very less," a student said. Protesting members of All India Students' Federation and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat, who were taken into preventive custody, raised slogans against the Telangana government and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and demanded resignation of Education Minister G Jagadeeshwar Reddy. A leader of the All India Democratic Students' Organisation said the BIE website was not functioning to enable students apply for revaluation and for re-verification. The student organisations demanded waiver off fee towards re-verification.

"The issue involves the future of 12 lakh students and their parents. Students are suffering for no fault of theirs. Justice should be meted out to students and we demand stringent action against the officials responsible," AISF members told reporters. Education Secretary B Janardhan Reddy told reporters there there was no need for parents and students to get agitated and they could go for recounting and re-verification. "Till yesterday around 9,000 applications were received," he said adding scanned copies of answer sheets were being handed over to students seeking re-verification. Any errors detected during re-verification would be rectified and action taken against such evaluators and scrutinisers, he said.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Congress wrote to the Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, E S L Narasimhan, demanding initiation of action against Globarena Technologies. State congress working president and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar Goud alleged that suicides of students took place only due to the "deliberate, negligent actions of the private firm in handling the Intermediate Exams. "

Telangana BJP President K Laxman wrote to Chief Secretary S K Joshi, demanding a judicial probe, headed by a sitting High Court Judge, to fix the responsibility and punish the guilty over the issue. The party also sought a complete one-time waiver of fee towards requests for recounting, revaluation and copies of the answer scripts, constitution of a special cell for grievances of students and redressal on a war-footing and introduction of comprehensive third party audit annually to analyse the quality of evaluation and take course correction.