Thiruvananthapuram: There has been no respite for students who wrote the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination in Kerala, with the confusion over the results still unresolved four days after the muddled grades were originally announced.
After days of confusion, in which at least one student who did not write the exam was declared “passed” and some others who wrote the exam could not find their results, the results are scheduled to be announced again, late on Friday. The new results are expected to also incorporate the grace marks awarded to students.
The highest-ever pass percentage of 97.99 had also raised eyebrows, with allegations that there was a deliberate attempt to pass the maximum number of students.
Adding to the confusion, the director of public instruction, Gopala Krishna Bhat said on Friday that the glitch in the results were due to human error. The DPI said an investigation would be conducted to determine at which data centre the errors occurred. However, his explanation contradicted education minister PK Abdu Rabb’s statement earlier that the results were muddled due to a glitch in the software used. Technology support for the result announcement was provided by the National Informatics Centre.
The Muslim Students’ Federation objected to the explanation of the DPI and demanded that he be removed from his post. Congress leader TN Prathapan commented that there was a “failure” in the announcement of the SSLC results. The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Samithi Parishad opined that there ought to be “comprehensive modernisation” of the manner in which the SSLC exams are conducted.
The results fiasco has triggered strong reaction on social media as well. “This is the first time ever that there has been a trailer for the SSLC exam result”, commented one user, while another bemoaned that the quality of school education in the state is plummeting to new depths even as the pass percentage is inching closer to 100 per cent.
