38K students give Inter examination a miss

HYDERABAD: As many as 38,542 intermediate students gave their final examination a miss this year. The Intermediate Public Examinations that ended on Wednesday recorded an overall absenteeism of 4.3 per cent.Though a small percentage, the number of absentees ranged from 13,000 to 25,000 students every day. As many as 9,63,546 students appeared for the examination. Of these, 4,55,635 were from I year and 5,07,911 from II year. For instance, physics, economics and classical language examination for I year saw the highest number of students bunking the examination — 25,015. Maths-IA, botany, civics, psychology paper I followed the lead with 24,103 absentees. Chemistry, commerce, sociology, fine arts and music paper I had 23,112 absentees.

Another trend that emerged was that year I students constituted a major chunk of those who missed the examinations. For year II, physics and economics examination saw the most number of students missing it. The Telangana State Board of Intermediate (TSBIE), however, downplayed the issue saying that most of the absentees were private candidates and not regular students. “The percentage of the absenteeism is low. This is nothing new. Every year we have 4-5 per cent of absentees and a majority of these are private candidates, who pay the fee but don’t appear,” explained Krupakar Reddy, from TSBIE.

Meanwhile, experts said that the 38,542 absentees should be considered as dropouts in intermediate education. “These students are not serious about getting the degree. They only pay fees out of habit. It is not a small number but most of these are already employed and or have several backlogs and keep procrastinating,” said P Madhusudhan Reddy, president, Government Intermediate Colleges Association. 
 
Cheating has come down

The booking of 391 malpractice cases this year is being seen as an achievement by both TSBIE and colleges. From a time when sacks full cheating materials would be seized from students, the strict vigilance, the presence of flying and sitting squads, one-minute rule, has made improved the situation, said the TSBIE official. 

Spot valuation commences
Spot valuation for evaluation of the answer scripts of English, Telugu, Hindi, Civics and Mathematics subjects commenced from Friday. Results are likely to be announced by mid-April, revealed a TSBIE official.