Telangana Intermediate exams from Wednesday, 9.47 lakh students set to appear

Speaking to the media Tuesday, Mittal said the TSBIE will soon publish a list of its affiliated colleges before the results of Class 10 exams are announced so that students can verify the status of such colleges before taking admissions.

Following the recent suicide of a student, N Satwik, of Sri Chaitanya junior college in Narsingi, the board is also in the process of finalising a set of new guidelines for junior colleges to ensure students are not mentally and physically tortured among many other things, he said. Four persons, including two principals, were arrested by the police and the TSBIE revoked the college’s affiliation over the suicide.

The exams are scheduled to be held from March 15 to April 4. A total of 4,82,677 first-year students and another 4,65,022 second-year students are eligible to appear for the exams at 1,473 examination centres across the state. Mittal said no student would be allowed inside the hall post 9 am and advised them to reach the examination hall by 8 am to avoid any confusion.

Mittal said students should make use of the Tele-MANAS (Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across the States (Tele-MANAS) services and call 14416 in case of any fear or stress of exams to avail psychological counselling and guidance.

On Monday, a 17-year-old first-year intermediate student in Hyderabad died by suicide at her home and according to the police, she took the extreme step fearing failure in the upcoming exams as she could not prepare well due to family problems.

According to him, seventy-five flying squads and 200 sitting squads are deployed to prevent malpractice. CCTV cameras are installed at exam centres, especially in places where question papers and answer booklets are handled. No cell phones, calculators or any gadgets and any kind of printed or written material will be allowed inside the hall. “No one will be allowed to use phones. Only the centre superintendent will be allowed to use mobile phones and that too after 11.30 am,” he said.

At the district level, the district-level high power committees led by district collectors and district examination committees led by the district intermediate education officers (DIEOs) have been constituted for better coordination and conduct of exams. A state control room has been established with numbers 040-24600110 and 040-24655027, which will be operational from 8 am to 8 pm.

Mittal said district coordination committee meetings with the participation of various departments have been conducted. The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation authorities have been asked for special buses and additional services to aid students to reach exam centres, he said. A nurse or ANM (auxiliary nursing midwife) staff too will be present at each exam centre.

Regarding the board’s proposed “onscreen digital evaluation” of the intermediate examinations answer scripts and if this would be implemented this year, Mittal said many of the interested pre-bidders have backed out after controversies created due to vested interests and two have been finalised.

“The technical bid presentation is invited and then the financial bids will be open. The process is on,” he said, neither confirming nor refuting the possibility of onscreen digital evaluation this year. The board’s proposed system requires scanning and uploading answer sheets to a software to allow teachers to evaluate them digitally by reading them on a computer screen.