Author: Team FirstRanker.com

Students appearing for SSC and Inter Board exams will be debarred for one to eight years if they write the names of Gods or draw religious symbols on answer scripts. Every year thousands of students looking for divine intervention write names of Gods on answer scripts but the government says that it amounts to communicating with the examiners directly or indirectly — a punishable offence.

The respective Boards had also directed students not to write pro-Telangana or pro-united AP slogans on answer scripts when regional tempers ran high during the 2010 and 2011 Board exams.

As per existing norms: “Writing anything other than answers on the answer scripts amounts to communicating with the examiners directly or indirectly which is a punishable offence.”Students resorting to such acts can be booked under malpractice and can be debarred from appearing for Board exams from one to eight years. Such answer scripts will not be valued and will be nullified. They will be declared as “failed” candidates, said a source. While the rules have been in place for years, the Boards had not been implementing them strictly. In the last couple of years, however, the Boards had issued strict warnings to students against writing political slogans like “Jai Telangana” and “Jai Samaikhyandhra” when the Tagitation was at its peak.However, several students continue to write the names of Gods and draw religious symbols on their answer scripts, which the government and the Boards now aim to control.“Writing political slogans and religious symbols on answer scripts have been giving unnecessary scope for allegations and complaints on evaluation of answer scripts. We want to implement the existing norms strictly from this year to check such practices,” said Mr K.Parthasarathi, minister for secondary education.SSC and Inter officials said they would issue instructions to examiners to inform students about norms while giving answer scripts at exam centres.“We will alert them in advance against writing such things while distributing answer scripts in the exam centre. If they still do it, they have to face the consequences,” said an Inter board official.

Source : Deccan Chronicle