india

Updated: Apr 24, 2019 23:42 IST

As the suicide count of students failing the intermediate public examinations in Telangana climbed to 19 on Wednesday, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ordered re-verification of answer scripts of the nearly 300,000 unsuccessful candidates free of cost.

After a two-hour review with senior officials, KCR – as the CM is called – ordered that re-verification be completed as early as possible so that students’ academic year is not lost.

Students who have passed the exam scoring low marks can apply for a re-verification and re-count at a cost.

The results announced by the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Examination (TSBIE) on April 18 shocked thousands of students with large-scale irregularities seen in the mark sheets. Many students who scored over 90% in the first-year exams were found to have failed the second-year tests. There were innumerable complaints of students being awarded zero, one or two marks in various subjects.

On Tuesday, the Telangana HC too had directed the board to re-evaluate answer scripts.

Three more failed examinees committed suicide in the last 24 hours. The spate of suicides led to agitations by the students and their parents. “No student should resort to committing suicide as failing in the intermediate exam does not mean life has come to an end,” KCR said.

This year, a total of 4,09,133 students appeared for the first-year exam in regular format, of whom 2,47,407 passed. As many as 3,82,534 students took the second-year exam, of whom 2,47,755 passed.

The committee set up to probe the alleged lapses in the exam results is expected to submit its report on Thursday.