She scored 106, but got only 66!

Tabulation error

And, one such case was that of a 15-year-old, who lost 14 precious marks in her English paper. Sana (name changed) discovered the error after seeing the photocopy of her answer script. 

She has scored 84 percent in her SSLC examinations. Though her English marks totalled up to 106, she was wrongly awarded only 66 in the total marks column.

For a student who had done consistently well at her school, the low scores were hard to digest. To add to her misery, her scores in Science and Mathematics too did not match up to her expectations. In fact, some of the answers had not even been corrected. Sana’s father said that his daughter expected an addition of at least five marks in each of the subjects.

Overall, Sana and her family believe that the girl was denied nearly 65 marks in her total score at the SSLC Board examination. “Such a difference in totalling is ridiculous,” said Bhandari, a family friend who accompanied the girl and her parents. “Because of such errors, students are driven to commit suicide. Such blunders are not justified. Who do we hold responsible in such a case” he questioned. Bhandari told Deccan Herald that the girl could not get admission in the college of her choice because of her low scores. Sana currently plans to apply for revaluation in all three subjects where she has been wronged.

Sana’s father said the officials at the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) however, did not want this information to be disclosed to anyone. According to the rule, if there is a difference of more than 10 marks during the revaluation or re-totalling, the department is expected to take action against the evaluators and the supervisor in charge.

Responding to the allegations levelled by Sana and her family, KSEEB Director, M N Baig said: "I am not aware of this case. We attend to hundreds of such cases everyday. We do our best to ensure that the students do not face any hassles with college admissions." He added that the department had already received nearly 5,000 complaints concerning re-valuation and re-totalling over the past week. Hence, it was difficult to provide details off-hand about one particular case.