‘ Sir, please pass me... else my father will send me to village’
DESPERATE WAYS Fearing failure, a number of UP Board examinees write such requests, attach money and even issue threats to evaluators in answer sheets
The fear of failure in UP Board examinations is so high among students that a number of them have left messages on their answer sheets, requesting the evaluators to pass them else their future will be doomed.
A class 12 examinee wrote: “Guruji kripya pass kara dijiye, nahi to pitaji gaon wapas bula lenge. Mujhe gaon nahi jana hai. (Sir, please pass me else my father will call me back to our village. I do not want to go back). Another examinee wrote: “My marriage proposal will be called off if I do not pass in the examination.”
Not only messages, some students have even attached currency notes with their answer sheets.
An examiner at a Government Inter College in the state capital said, “A ` 100 note was attached with an answer sheet. And there was a small message that read: Please have tea and snacks with this money. But do award me passing marks else my academic career will be doomed.” Apart from requests, some students have even left threats and abuses for examiners if they failed to pass the former. “One such warning was: I will make your life difficult if I get to know who has evaluated my answer sheet. I can find out as one of my family member is in the education department,” said another examiner.
However, examiners say that requests, threats or currency notes are of no help to students.
“We are teachers and such things do not impact our style of work. Marks are awarded only on merit of the answers. We discourage these kind of tactics as they are useless,” an evaluator at Aminabad Inter College said.
Sources said that examiners are spending just about two minutes to evaluate a high school and or an intermediate exam copy. But ideally they should spend about eight minutes to check a class 10 copy and seven minutes to evaluate a class 12 copy.
But according to the evaluators, often they are forced to evaluate the copies fast. This adversely affects the quality of evaluation.
RP Mishra, an office bearer of UP Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh told HT, “The evaluation work begins at 10 am and ends at 5 pm with an hour-long lunch break in the afternoon. As per rule, a teacher is required to evaluate 50 answer sheets of high school or 40 copies of intermediate examination. This means eight high school copies or seven intermediate copies in an hour.”
According to Mishra, the UP Board should provide better infrastructure at the evaluation entre. “Teachers are not machines. The fact that they are made to sit in small benches meant for students for evaluating answer sheets is not good,” he said.
There are five evaluation centres in Lucknow. The evaluation process started on March 30 and will end on April 13.