HYDERABAD: Demanding that all intermediate first-year students be given pass marks and officials who conducted the exam in haste should be sacked, hundreds of junior colleges in the state remained shut on Monday as a bandh by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) took hold.
Several other organisations, including Save Education Committee, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Students Federation of India (SFI), among others also joined in and are demanding that the state award pass marks to all students who failed in the examination.
“Exams were conducted in haste and amid a lot of confusion. How does it make sense to conduct exams for first-year students when they are in the second year and that too without conducting regular classes,” questioned Venkat Balmoor, state president, NSUI.
Protesters demanded that all students from some 2,000 junior colleges should be given pass marks and improvement exams should be conducted so that they can better their scores. They also demanded that families of three students, who committed suicide, should get justice. “Those who committed suicide are meritorious students. They died as they could not secure more marks, not because they failed in the exam,” added Balmoor.
K Chakradhar Rao, president, Save Education Committee, said students are dying from suicide as they are under tremendous stress and confused as they are unable to figure how they are going to pass the intermediate exam.
“The board announcing that there won’t be supplementary exams and that students who failed in exams will have to appear for the failed papers along with second-year exams is only adding to their stress. The state should stop playing with the lives of students and immediately award pass marks to all students,” he added.
The SFI members, who took out a rally from Kachiguda to RTC X-roads, said that along with graduating students, the state should conduct improvement exams without charging any fee from the students. “The chief minister should give assurance to families who lost their children,” said RL Murty, state president, SFI.
The ABVP members, who gave a call for bandh of junior colleges on Tuesday, burnt symbolic effigies at Osmania University Arts College, Alwal, among other places on Monday. Their demands include free re-evaluation of papers, sacking of inter board secretary and education minister for not conducting online classes and conducting exams without a proper plan and quick remedial measure.
Cops caught protesters at various places and took them to the respective police stations.
