Tension prevails at TSBIE as students stage protests

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at TSBIE on Friday with the activists belonging to Students Federation of India staging a protest over the low pass percentage recorded in first-year intermediate exams. They said that the low pass percentage of 49 among first-year intermediate students and lower percentages to even those who passed the exams reflects the failures of the Board.

The protesting students said that the classes for the first-year intermediate were not held properly due to Covid. Earlier, the Board had taken the wrong decision to conduct IPE first-year intermediate examinations when the students were not prepared to give examinations. Further, the Board had cited that the examinations were nominal and all would be passed. All this has boiled down to the current lowest pass percentage of students, alleged SFI State president RL Murthy.

He said those students who have got 10 out of 10 GPA grades in the SSC examinations were among those with the lowest percentage in the IPE results declared on Thursday. "It shows that conducting examinations was not appropriate and the examinations which were supposed to be held in April were delayed for six months," he added. Parents, students and SFI activists appealed to the Board to not to conduct the examinations as students were not in a position to write them had fallen on deaf ears. And, it indicates the irresponsibility on the part of the Board, he added.

The SFI leaders asked the Board to take immediate measures to address the unrest and agony brewing among students and parents. The protesters demanded the Board to award minimum pass marks to all failed students as they are currently pursuing the second year and also in view of their future.

Further, the protesting students have also demanded to conduct another round of examinations for those who wanted to score higher marks.

The protesters alleged that the unilateral decisions of the Board were creating a situation for the anguished students to end their lives and the State government should take the responsibility of such tragic incidents.

They demanded Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and TSBIE to issue a clarification on the issue to instill confidence among students. The student leaders have also objected to the preventive arrests for staging peaceful protests by the police.