Telangana, Andhra Pradesh to rent furniture for SSC exams

Hyderabad: Officials in Telangana and AP are taking steps to rent furniture to furnish hundreds of schools which lack desks for students to sit and take the SSC exams, which begin on March 21.

Instructions have been given to school principals that do not have proper furniture to make stop-gap arrangements until the completion of exams.

They were asked to rent furniture from nearby private schools which are not exam centres and ensure that students write the exams in comfort. Transportation charges and rent would be borne by the government.

To find a permanent solution to the problem, AP has allotted Rs 20 crore to purchase dual desks that will be supplied to government schools in all 13 districts in the state.

According to an AP official, the dispatch of tables had just started.
“Each table costs nearly Rs 5,000. We hope to transport these tables before the exams begin. It will will cater to nearly 70 per cent of schools,” he added.

The decision to install CCTV cameras in all exam centres in Telangana has been put off to the next year owing to opposition from government school staff and the lack of left to install the gadgets.

A few hundred private schools in Hyderabad, that are equipped with CCTV facilities, have offered to record the students writing exams.

“We will check the CCTV footage in those schools in case any irregularities are reported,” said a government official. It will also give officials a trial run on the use of CCTV cameras.

Poor results tense officials too
Hyderabad district officials are perhaps as tense as students, with the SSC exams set to begin in a fortnight. The district recorded the second lowest pass percentage statewide.

The city, with over 3,000 high schools in the government and private sector, could record a dismal pass percentage of 64 last year, just above the backward Adilabad district that got 54 per cent.

This figure baffled experts, considering the standard of education and facilities in Hyderabad are regarded as the best in the state. Of the 31,962 boys who wrote the SSC exam last year, 19,215 passed and 23,308 of 33,704 girl students cleared the exam.

Hyderabad collector Rahul Bojja said students had been divided into categories, depending upon their ability. Special classes were held for those considered weak from November to February.

He said the results were poor even in private schools. Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation Hyderabad district president M. Ravinder attributed poor results to the socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of students.