Latecomers driven away, in tears

Several students across the State denied permission to enter exam centres as they were late by a minute

Hyderabad: Intermediate public examinations began on a smooth note in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, barring the ‘one-minute late’ norm enforced by Telangana officials. The rule deprived several first year IPE students from appearing in the exam on day one as they arrived late at the exam centre.

In the city, a student was denied entry in to the examination hall at the Government Junior College for Girls at Nampally as she reported to the college at 9.05 am, which is five minutes ahead the scheduled time. Though the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) had appealed to the students and parents to reach the examination centres by 8.30 am, several students were spotted running around the in search of their examination centres.

Students and parents at several examination centres questioned the BIE’s ‘one- minute late’ rule. “We used public transport to reach the examination centre, but were delayed by a couple of minutes. But the officials refused to allow my son,” said a dejected father at an examination centre at Tarnaka. He refused to disclose his name.

Another student who too was denied entry in to the examination hall asked, “Today is the first day of the examination and there are practical difficulties in identifying the examination centre. I don’t understand why officials have imposed this rule,” he rued. In Godavarikhani of Karimnagar district, three students Madhukar, Shekar and Sayyad Samiuddin reached the examination hall a minute late.

Officials did not allow them by showing the ‘one-minute late’ rule. They said they had reached the examination hall one minute late as their houses were far away from the examination centre. However, officials said that the new system was implemented to avoid malpractice in the examination. They said question papers were picked up from the police stations nearby and opened at 8.45 am in the examination centres.

The board felt that there might be chances of paper leakage, and hence it wanted the students to be seated in the exam hall before 9 am. “In the advent of technology, a question can be sent to any part of the world within seconds. Some colleges are known for their corrupt practices. This norm will certainly curtail malpractice to some extent,” an official said.

The board asked the exam officials to be a lenient if students came late because of genuine reasons. However, the Government Junior Lecturers Association, Telangana unit president, P Madhusudhan Reddy said the concept of ‘one-minute late’ norm was not correct. “The board should take other measures to curtail malpractices.

Due to this new norm, genuine and economically poor students who depend on public transportation will be at the receiving end,” he said. As many as 4,56,148 students in Telangana appeared for the examination at 1,257 examination centres across the State.

Whereas in Andhra Pradesh, 4,96,268 candidates took the examination at 1,363 exam centres and 16,491 stayed away from the test. Three malpractice cases, including two in Nellore and one in Kurnool, were booked in Andhra Pradesh, whereas, no malpractice case has been reported from Telangana.