Thiruvananthapuram: There was more bewilderment on Sunday as Kerala announced its Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination result again, revising the one announced early last week. While the first results had raised eyebrows with a pass percentage as high as 97.99 across the state, the new results took it closer to 100 per cent, at 98.57.
A comment on social media that “this is the first time ever that the SSLC examination results had a trailer” appeared to come true as the authorities were forced to announce a revised set of results on Sunday, to replace the inaccuracies-ridden results that were originally announced.
Kozhikode and Kottayam districts topped the list with a pass percentage of 99.38 per cent, while even last-placed Palakkad had a pass percentage of 97.18. A total of 468,466 students had appeared for the examination.
The new results come six days after the original announcement, and the results were uploaded on different websites, including those of the public relations department, the National Informatics Centre and the Kerala IT@school.
There was confusion earlier regarding the cause of the inaccuracies, with the education minister P.K. Abdu Rabb blaming the software and the director of public instruction, Gopala Krishna Bhat pointing to the human errors that cropped up during data entry.
An official announcement said technical glitches had led to the problems associated with the results. This is the first time that the SSLC results have had to be announced a second time, with corrections.
There has been widespread criticism regarding the pass percentage, with many pointing out that the SSLC examination itself should be scrapped if the government’s intention is to pass everyone. On the other hand, scores of parents prefer their wards to opt for the SSLC stream for the near-total assurance that their wards will get high scores in the examination.
One of the secrets of the high pass percentage is the high scores awarded to students in their continuous internal evaluation. Most students get 18 out of the 20 marks in the internal evaluation, which leaves them to get only a few more marks out of the remaining 80 to achieve a pass.