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Tag: HYDERABAD

  • Inter board wakes up to its blunder

    HYDERABAD: The Board of Intermediate Education has decided to make its evaluation process more stringent this year to minimise errors. The BIE officials on Wednesday announced that only senior lecturers would be appointed to evaluate the Inter answer papers this year so that the students would not suffer.

    The BIE has been reeling under allegations of several errors creeping into the evaluation of intermediate answer scripts. It was found that over 75 per cent of the answer scripts were evaluated incorrectly by junior lecturers last year.

    At a media briefing here, G Balaramaiah, secretary, BIE, said that since September 2010, eligible lecturers were given special training to ensure that answer papers this year would be evaluated properly. “Even on the first day of the examination, a model answer script and key will be given to each of the examiners so that they can evaluate the students without making mistakes. The chief examiner will value the answer scripts of students who get the lowest marks in each of the spot valuation centres to prevent errors,” secretary said. According to the secretary, 25 per cent of the answer scripts evaluated in each of the centres will be subjected to scrutiny of the chief examiners, a practice which was not followed earlier.

    Interestingly, the BIE officials are also planning to put up an answer key on the BIE website so that students and teachers can send in their suggestions to the board before finalising the model answer scripts.

    “There is a proposal to put up the answer key online. But this will have to be discussed further with stake holders including teachers and students,” said Balaramaiah. He added that five subject experts would prepare the answer key for each subject.

    The board announced that its practical examinations would begin on February 3 at 2,573 centres in the state. A total of 5,92,904 students will appear for practical examinations in both general and vocational streams.

    Stringent monitoring of practical examinations will also be undertaken by the board, secretary said.

    “There will be a total of 11,872 examiners for conducting the exams. Also to check the smooth conduct of the examinations, proceedings in some centres will be videographed and presented before the board,” said the secretary. Jumbling in practical examinations may be introduced from 2011-12 academic year if all the colleges have enough lab facilities.

    Theory examinations will be held from March 7 to 21 at 2,397 centres.

    The secretary requested all political parties from Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema regions to allow the smooth conduct of IPE examinations as students from the state will not be allowed to appear for IIT-JEE, AIEEE and other all India examinations if intermediate examinations are not held on time.

    Source : TOI

  • Students ‘part of Tri-Valley conspiracy’

    HYDERABAD: Are Indian students of the Tri-Valley University (TVU) innocent? It appears that if TVU sought to make money, some of the students tried to take advantage of the loopholes in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the official database that is critical for foreign students seeking admission to US universities also known as Certificate of Eligibility, either knowingly or unknowingly.

    Parents of the students, however, maintain that the university had lured their children by making false claims about its courses. A case in point is that of Hyderabad-based Deepthi (name changed) who has been radio tagged last week.

    She went to TVU eight months ago to pursue an MS course. “When Deepthi asked about the nitty-gritty of the course, the TVU authorities informed her that it was an online course.. it sounded like a correspondence course. She was taken aback but since there was little that she could do, she decided to continue at TVU for a few months and later, move on to any other university,” Karthikeya, brother of Deepthi, told Express. When she sought to know what was her crime, the US authorities told her that since she was part of TVU, she was part of the conspiracy. “What mistake has she committed? She first got the I20, the admission letter, given by TVU and later, she applied for the visa. The US consulate authorities gave her the visa after going through the papers submitted by her. Where is the question of she committing the fraud?,’’ Karthikeya wondered.

    But these questions right now have no answers. Mohan Nannapaneni, secretary, Telugu Association of North America, pointed out: “All the students affected are not ‘really qualified’ under F-1 visa rules. In fact, many of them tried to take advantage of the loopholes in SEVIS, knowingly or unknowingly.”

    For the TVU, though, the business was lucrative. Each student had to shell out as much as Rs 1.6 lakh per semester for the courses (which are mostly online). “Each foreign national receiving F-1 status at TVU was charged up to $ 2,700 per semester to maintain their F-1 status,” stated the Complaint for Forfeiture papers presented in court by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (a copy of which is with Express). The university received $4,198,500 as tuition fees between February, 2009 and September, 2010.

    Meanwhile, students facing removal proceedings after being let off from detention and others, who have not been able to furnish the hefty surety which ranges from $5,000 to $ 22,000 continue to languish in detention centres.

    Those out from the centres have had to bear with the radio tags despite protests from the Indian government. But sounding optimistic, Nannapaneni said: “Since so many parties are involved, the case has not made any great progress. But things are looking up. The Indian Embassy has already contacted the US Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

    Source : Indian Express

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