SSLC script fire: Re-exam by April-end

DHNS

Bangalore, 17 April 2011: In the aftermath of the scorched answer papers fiasco, the SSLC board is working day and night to put together the list of 2,775 students whose answer scripts were destroyed in a fire in Shimoga.

 

According to board officials, the re-examination will be held by April-end. The students will be notified most likely by Monday, as the Karnataka State Secondary Education Board (KSEEB) has finished collating the information.

 

KSEEB director D Venkateshaiah told Deccan Herald: “The report would be submitted to the State government and after that a decision on conducting the re-examination will be taken. Once a date for the re-examination has been fixed, the board will publish an advertisement in leading newspapers to alert the candidates.”

 

He said: “Candidates will be given eight days to prepare for the exam after the announcement.”

 

On Thursday, 12 bundles of Hindi answer scripts lying at Basaveshwar High School in Shimoga were destroyed in a fire. Of the total 4,468 answer scripts from Mysore, around 2,775 were completely destroyed.

 

According to officials in the education department, this is the first-ever recorded incident of SSLC answer scripts being destroyed before evaluation.

 

“There have been some incidents where answer scripts were lost after evaluation, but they have been mostly one-off cases,” said an official.

 

“But the loss of nearly three thousand papers, before or after evaluation, is unheard of,” he added.

 

Even the KSEEB Act does not envisage a situation where answer scripts are unavailable before evaluation. At most, Section 17(5) of the Act gives emergency powers to the chairman of the SSLC board to deal with any situation regarding the conduct of exams and declaration of results.

 

Now, all eyes of Class 10 students, particularly those from the Mysore district, will be on the SSLC board’s alacrity in putting up the list.

 

“We are struggling with some shortage of staff as some of them have been sent to West Bengal for the Assembly elections. But the report will be ready by Monday,” Venkateshaiah said.