Weak students asked to appear as pvt candidates:Parents

The Government Higher Primary School in Yelahanka is allegedly forcing ‘under-performing’ students to appear as ‘private candidates’ in order to secure 100% pass percentage in SSLC exams.

The move has invited the wrath of parents who staged a protest on the campus.

Protesters included parents of those students who are not given hall-tickets, with the SSLC exams just a couple of days away.

Parents who gathered in front of the school on Tuesday afternoon claimed the school principal had not submitted the necessary details to the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, because of which the hall tickets were not generated.

“My child has full attendance. I also have the receipt of the DD for having paid the examination fee. Yet, he did not get the hall ticket. School authorities, hand in glove with the principal, have not submitted details to the Board as they suspect my child might score less marks. This is a gimmick to ensure the school has a 100% pass rate this year,” said a parent.

Meanwhile, parents also claimed they were not informed about the issue beforehand.

“There was no meeting regarding this. If my child had a shortage of attendance, the school had to inform us. We did not receive any alert,” said another parent.

APSA Childline received three complaints in this regard over the last two days. Gunasheela, the childline team member, who was at the spot, claimed that as per data gathered, only 299 out of 320 students could appear as regular candidates.

“The school management later convinced the parents that the headmistress would ensure their hall tickets are printed before the supplementary exams in June and that they could attend that,” she said.

Speaking about the issue, T N Kamalakara, block education officer, Bengaluru North said, “I gather that some students had a shortage of attendance. As the exam process is underway, I am unable to gather more data. The management told me that four of these students did not have sufficient attendance and were irregular.”

He also said that it was too late for the parents to raise this issue as hall tickets were distributed nearly a month ago, and no concerns were raised until now.