Telangana teacher gives student '0' marks instead of '99', suspended

Telangana Board of Intermediate (BIE) suspended a teacher and imposed fine on another for giving a student '0' marks instead of '99' on Sunday. BIE announced that it had imposed the fine against Uma Devi, a private school teacher and suspended Vijay Kumar, a teacher of a tribal welfare school.

Hyderabad: The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) in Telangana, which has been currently embroiled in a 'goof-up' in declaring the results of Intermediate examinations, suspended a teacher and imposed a fine on another for giving a student '0' marks instead of '99', here on Sunday.

The development comes a day after a three-member committee submitted its report (over the incident) to the government, prompting the BIE to initiate action against those found guilty of dereliction of duty.

BIE announced late Sunday that it has imposed Rs. 5,000 fine against Uma Devi, a teacher of a private school who evaluated Telugu paper of Navya, a 12th standard student, but instead of giving '99' marks gave her '0' marks. Uma Devi has also been sacked by her school management.

BIE also suspended Vijay Kumar, a teacher of a tribal welfare school, who had served as scrutiniser but failed to notice the blunder.

The alleged goof-up by the BIE has triggered a spate of suicides by students, followed by a series of protests by parents, student bodies and opposition parties. They have been demanding action against the higher-ups in the Board and Globarena Technologies, an IT company, which was allegedly found guilty of the massive bungling.

Suicide by 20 students and massive protests forced the government to announce free re-verification of answer sheets of over 3 lakh students, who were declared failed in the examination.