Faulty marking software blamed for 20 student suicides in India

MORE than 20 students in one Indian state have committed suicide after faulty marking software graded them incorrectly.

Parents had demanded a review of results after more than one third of students in Telangana state failed their two-year Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), which school leavers sit before entering higher education.

The state government has since announced that students who did not pass the exams will be eligible for a free recount of their papers.

Suspicions were raised after many students who had achieved top marks in the first year of examinations did not even pass in the second and final year.

Parents correctly laid the blame with Globarena Technologies Private Limited – the company which provided software to the state government to process examination results but which has been found to have marked the admission tests inaccurately. They also allege that the organisation awarded marks to students who didn’t turn up for exams and that the marking errors were covered up because the company has close links to the son of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana.

“A student, identified as Naveena… failed in Telugu [exam] in the final year,” a student leader told the Indian e-newspaper First Post.

“After reverification, she got 93 per cent in that particular subject.”

Admission into India’s top universities is among the most competitive in the world. Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce gets 28,000 applications for 400 places. Less than 2 per cent of applicants get in, an acceptance rate below that of Harvard.

As numbers applying are so high most colleges take students in solely on their performance in the HSSC to make their admissions process simple.

Unemployment rates in India are at their highest in 45 years thanks in part to a population explosion which has seen one million people now turn 18 every month.

The job market is therefore more competitive than ever, meaning getting a degree from a good university is seen as vital.

Some students reported that their parents had enlisted them into specialist high school colleges where they were made to study for up to 16 hours a day to try to ensure good HSSC results.

The independent panel has said it will imminently announce measures to ensure that marking errors do not occur again.