Demanding proper evaluation, a girl student allegedly slit her hand in front of the office of the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in Bhubaneswar on Monday.
The student from Ganjam district was among scores of dropout and ex-regular students who were staging a demonstration against the different valuation systems for annual +2 examinations this year. The injured girl, an ex-regular student, has been admitted to a hospital for necessary treatment.
“As CHSE officials have taken a decision to conduct examination in the next 10 days , we have come to seek answers to the injustice meted to dropout and ex—regular students who have been made to make several rounds of the CHSE office. We have been harassed mentally,” the injured girl student (whose identity has been kept secret) alleged.
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The agitating students alleged that despite several protests in the past, no step has been taken by the authorities to solve their grievances. They said, “We want concrete answer from the CHSE officials who claimed to have taken the decision keeping in mind the welfare of the students. But this isn’t the way. We will go back and prepare for the upcoming exam only after getting satisfactory answers,” one of the students said.
The students are demanding publication of results on the basis of the marks scored in class 10.
“The authorities had not informed in advance about the evaluation criteria. Only one hour prior to the publication of +2 results, we were told that our results have been withheld,” said a student. The students said the three notices which were issued recently have added to their confusion.
“In the first notice, the authorities announced to conduct the exams for two elective and one language paper. Subsequently, we got another notice in which were asked us to appear for four subjects. Is it practically possible to revise and cover the subjects in 10 days? We need at least 15 days to prepare,” said another student.
Meanwhile, the CHSE officials could not be contacted for response over today’s incident.
Earlier on September 6, hundreds of dropout and ex-regular students had staged a massive protest in Bhubaneswar over the alleged disparity in the evaluation process for +2 results. The students’ wing of the Congress party had also backed the protest.
“We want marks to be awarded as per the marks scored in class 10 since we were not told in advance about the conduct of exams in offline mode. We have been neglected and cheated. Regular students who had passed class 10 with 70 per cent marks were awarded similar marks in +2. But many of us who scored good marks in matric exams have been marked failed,” a student had earlier alleged.
The students alleged that due to the wrong practice adopted by the Council, only 26 per cent ex-regular students passed +2 exams while the pass percentage of regular students stood at 99 per cent this year.