Several Diploma in Education (DEd) students in Belgaum took out a march to the office of the deputy commissioner there, protesting against the low pass percentage in Marathi papers of the course, conducted by the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board.
The result of the DEd course, announced two days ago, recorded an abysmally low 2% pass in the first-year Marathi papers. Alleging injustice, the protesting students demanded the re-evaluation of all papers within 15 days.
Commissioner J Ravishankar, who would submit a report on the issue to the state government, had requisitioned for a list of the 50 successful students, out of the total 650 who had sat forthe Marathi exam. According to the education wing of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), 95% to 100% students used to be successful in the previous years.
Despite their poor performance in Marathi, the students registered a success rate of 98% and 70% in their Kannada and English papers, respectively.
“They (the authorities) should not play with our future,” said Ajay Kamble, a first-year DEd student, who had failed to clear the Marathi examination. Like several other students, Kamble was also expecting 85% to 90% in Marathi.
Meanwhile, the poor result was snowballing into a controversy, with several organisations suspecting a conspiracy behind the mass failure.
“It is either corruption or conspiracy. What we have learnt unofficially is that this time the board officials brought some evaluators from Kolhapur, who failed 98% of the students. Earlier, teachers from Karnataka used to evaluate the paper. Anyway, they are playing with the lives and careers of youngsters, and we will not allow this to happen,” said PB Patil, president of the MES’ education wing.
Former mayor and MES leader Vijay More believed more in the conspiracy than the corruption theory. “Somebody played mischief and we want to get it rectified,” he asserted.
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