Suicides by students force TS to pass all intermediate first-year candidates

The Education Minister, however, stated that the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) had made no mistake by conducting the exams
Telangana Education Minister Sabita Indra Reddy | Pic: EPS
Telangana Education Minister Sabita Indra Reddy | Pic: EPS

The deaths of six students by suicide after they failed the intermediate first-year exams has led to the Telangana administration bowing down to the students' demands of clearing them all in the exams.
 
The announcement was made by Telangana Education Minister Sabita Indra Reddy who said, “The decision has been taken to reduce the stress on students, as they will be appearing for second-year examinations soon." However, she said the government or the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) hasn't made any mistake by conducting the first-year exams. Held belatedly in the month of October due to the pandemic, these exams were taken by students who had already been promoted by the BIE to the second year. When the exams were announced, there were widespread protests from parents and students who said that they were not adequately prepared to write them due to the fact that classes were conducted online, which led to learning loss amongst the students. Parents had claimed that online education had specifically impacted students from marginalised backgrounds without access to digital learning facilities.
 
When the results were released last week, a shocking 51 per cent of the students had failed. This, and the board's refusal to conduct improvement exams, led to stress amongst the students who have been vehemently demanding that for an all-clear and improvement exams to boost their scores. These marks hold 25 per cent weightage in the state's Engineering, Medical and Agricultural Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) and are therefore crucial.

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