Awarding grace marks in board examinations is nothing new, yet the state government is reluctant to award grace marks this year to students failed in Physics in the Intermediate second year exams. About 1.8 lakh students will be declared failed without the grace marks. In 2008, the then chief minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy had announced eight grace marks for Inter students in lieu of errors in question papers. Even in the Eamcet, 10 grace marks were awarded in 2008 and three grace marks in 2009 for goof-ups in question papers.
In June 2011, political leaders from Telangana region met Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and demanded five grace marks for failed SSC and Intermediate students, stating that they had failed due to disruption of academic activities on account of T-agitations. However, the demand was turned down.
“The grace marks were awarded earlier as there were errors in question papers. But this time it was not the case. The issue now is not about errors but deviations from the question paper pattern, which the government is not accepting,” said Physics lecturer P. Suryanarayana. The government is not in a position to take a decision on grace marks since there are different views on “deviations” in the question paper format. “One can question the errors in question papers but the question paper pattern cannot be questioned. The government, or board, has the discretion to frame questions the way it wants. Unless the questions don’t come from within the syllabus, there is no scope for demanding grace marks, said K. Sujatha, lecturer.