Physics singes Inter students
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There was consternation and tears among students and their parents after the Intermediate second year examination results were announced by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) on Monday. Many students had failed or secured fewer marks than they thought they would score in the physics paper. The failure rate for this one subject was 31 per cent.
The results allegedly prompted a 17-year-old girl, M. Janaki, to commit suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling at her residence in Visakhapatnam district. She secured 14 marks in physics. ln Kakinada, Sheikh Sameena, 18, committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan of her house. She scored 15 marks.
Karnakula Anjali Devi, 18, of Gopikrishna Colony in Turangi village of Kakinada drank a bottle of kerosene and is in a critical condition. Of the 3.73 lakh students who appeared for the science exams (MPC and BiPC streams), 1.88 lakh have failed in physics. With this, the overall state pass percentage came down to 58.43 this year, from 63.27 last year, a decrease of 4.84 per cent.
Students for grace marks, state says no
Only 649 students in the state got full marks — 60 out of 60 — in physics, as the Intermediate second year exam results were announced. Of those who passed in physics, 86 per cent got more than 21 and less than 60. Students and parents want the government to award grace marks, arguing that the questions deviated from the pattern being followed by BIE for nearly a decade. The government has ruled this out, saying the question paper tested the understanding skills of students and discouraged “rote learning”.
Students have been apprehensive about this paper, which was the toughest one they encountered in the exam. They claim it “deviated from the blueprint.” Some senior professors had acknowledged that it was the toughest paper in the last 10 years. The BIE denied that such “deviations” could have caused the low marks. M. Subramanyam, secretary, BIE, explains: “Normally, we selected some questions from the list of questions that figure at the end of each chapter. This time we framed new questions, but have not deviated from the subject. The earlier method was encouraging rote learning. Private colleges are making students learn answers ‘by heart’.”
Meanwhile, 23 per cent failed in history, 20 per cent in economics, botany (15%), zoology (13%), maths (12%) and chemistry (11%).
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