Fire destroys 1,200 SSLC answer sheets

Shimoga, Apr 14 : Anxiety grips over 1,200 SSLC students and their parents as a fire has destroyed their Hindi examination answer scripts here on Thursday evening. 

 
 Officials indicated that the SSLC Examination Board might conduct re-examination at the centres from where the answerscripts had arrived. As a result, more than 1,200 students may have to appear for re-examination.

About a dozen bundles each containing 100 answer scripts were destroyed when sparks from welding work set off a fire at Basaveshwar Government School here. The scripts were from examination centres in Mysore district. The Hindi paper examination was conducted on April 18. They had been stored in the Basaveshwar School, for evaluation on April 18. It is one of the six evaluation centres in the town.

Welding work was under way on a window in the room where the answer scripts were stored.

According to Block Education Officer T N Kamalakar, more than 12 bundles of answer scripts have been destroyed. The remaining answer scripts will be shifted elsewhere. The controller of examinations is expected to arrive here and a departmental inquiry will be held.

Investigations will throw light on the reason behind the mishap, said Deputy Commissioner V Ponnuraj.

As summer vacation has begun and the students might have travelled away from the towns where they appeared for the examinations, informing them of the re-examination and reassembling all of them in time might pose a problem.

Also many of the students are likely to have joined coaching classes to prepare for further education, which will now be disrupted. Whether the fire and ensuing need for re-examination will delay the announcement of results of the whole examination remains to be seen. In that case, the meticulous planning of the students and the parents at this crucial juncture of their education would be seriously upset.