Inter exams from tomorrow, regionalism surfaces

Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) officials said that Intermediate Public Examinations will be held under strict surveillance this year to prevent malpractices. Mobile phones in and around the examination centre will be tracked using GPS and no one including invigilators will be allowed to use phones inside the examination centres.

"Students should not bring their mobile phones to the centres. Even invigilators are not allowed to take the phones inside the examination hall," Naik said. This year students will not be allowed inside the examination hall after 9 am, the time of commencement of examination. Students are expected to report at the examination centres by 8.30 am. "Earlier we used to allow students inside the hall within 30 minutes of commencement of examinations. This year, students will not be allowed inside the hall even a minute later," Naik announced.

Officials also asked private college managements to issue hall-tickets to students even if they did not pay their fee.

From the other end, Telangana lecturers vowed not to examine answer scripts of students from the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh this year. Seeking a region-specific evaluation, members of Telangana Lecturers Association on Monday barged into the office of the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) and asked authorities not to send answer scripts from Telangana to Seemandhra for evaluation. The protestors vowed to suspend evaluation in the region if the BIE failed to honour their demand. The lecturers protested soon after the board officials announced measures taken for the smooth conduct of the public examinations this year.

Till last year, BIE used to shuffle the answer scripts of students from across the state and allow lectures from one region to evaluate answer scripts from another region. The practice had kicked up a row since 2009, when students from Telangana region started complaining that lectures from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions giving them poor marks, spurred by regional conflict.

IPE for first year students will begin on March 12 and for the second year students, examination will commence from March 13.

Evaluation of answer scripts of Sanskrit examination is expected to commence fromMarch 19, and for other subjects from March 28. IPE concludes on March 29 for first year students and April 1 for second year students.

Responding to demands of the protestors, officials at BIE said they would examine the feasibility of the matter. "We will look into it and take appropriate measures to prevent evaluation from getting disrupted," said Rama Shankar Naik, secretary, BIE.

The protestors said students from all regions would benefit if BIE decides on region-specific evaluation. "From 2009 to 2011, about 5,000 students from Telangana region who applied for re-evaluation found that their papers were evaluated by lecturers with a regional bias. This time, regional sentiments have flared up due to bifurcation of the state and BIE should not allow students from any region to be affected by this," said Kathi Venkat Swami, state president of Telangana Lecturers Forum.