Telangana board changes late student's grade from fail to pass to fail

Hyderabad: 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 that she had passed.

The BIE late Saturday night clarified that the class 11 student, who had committed suicide in April over getting the news that she had failed the examination, was declared pass due to a "clerical error" in reevaluation.

As the word spread that Anamika Arutla's family was contemplating action against BIE officials with the 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 a 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.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that a revaluation of her papers found that Anamika Arutla had passed her exams.

Following the revaluation of answer sheets, her marks in Telugu subject increased by 28. She was earlier declared "fail" for scoring only 20 marks in the subject.

This incident came to light on Saturday; it is most damning for the BIE, whose bungling while processing results allegedly led to 26 students committing suicide.

After Arutla’s results came to light, her family members began to clamour for action against board officials.

Arutla studied in Pragati Maha Vidyalaya in Hyderabad. The grade 11 student found herself depressed when her initial scores were declared on April 18. Her marks sheet showed that she passed in all subjects except Telugu, in which she secured only 20.

She scored 64 marks in English, 55 in Economics, 67 in Civics and 75 in Commerce. Unable to come to terms with her failure, she hung herself.

The re-verification revealed that Arutla had scored 48 marks and not 20.

The BIE had declared the results of intermediate (Classes 11 and 12) examinations on April 18. Out of 943,000 students who appeared in the exams, only 560,000 passed. After the announcement, the board’s goof-up came to light, sparking public outcry.

The spate of suicides by students over failure in exams kicked up a storm with opposition parties and student bodies taking to the streets to demand justice.

After the matter reached the Telangana High Court, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on April 24 announced free re-verification of the answer sheets of all failed students.

The BIE on May 27 announced results of re-verification of answer scripts of more than 382,000 students. Following this process, 1,137 students, who had been declared "failed", found themselves passed.

The student bodies and NGOs claimed that 26 students had ended their lives. Arutla’s case came to light after her family checked the results on the BIE website on Saturday.

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 Arutla's case and order action against BIE higher-ups for their negligence, which led to her death.