Hyderabad engineering students protest online against JNTU's evaluation process

Students are accusing the management of failing students on purpose in order to make money during re-evaluation.
Hyderabad engineering students protest online against JNTU's evaluation process
Hyderabad engineering students protest online against JNTU's evaluation process
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Several engineering students in Hyderabad have taken to social media to raise their voice against what they call an 'unfair' evaluation of answer sheets by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), with students claiming that the administration is failing them on purpose to make money through the re-evaluation process.

The issue gained so much momentum, that it came to the notice of state minister K T Rama Rao, who said that he brought the issue to the notice of the state's education minister.

An online petition on Change.org has also gained a lot of support, with almost 9,000 signatures at the time of writing this.

"So, on the 7th of February, the results for the exams that we had written in November came out. As I've been habituated by the haphazard tendencies of JNTU since my first year, I wasn't exactly expecting any great or even a good result to be honest. But what I did expect was to clear all my subjects and the relationship between JNTU and I would still be a love-hate one," the petitioner wrote.

He went on to add, "The pass mark is 26 which should've been a cakewalk. But no! I got 16. Yes, SIXTEEN. Now, does that make you understand how terrible JNTU is actually?" (sic).

Sporadic protests were also seen across many campuses affiliated to JNTU, where students raised slogans for 'justice'.

The hashtag #AgainstJntuHEvaluation on Twitter, saw several people take to the website, and vent out their frustration.
Many students have also come out with a list of demands.

This includes that the "re-evaluation fee, this time, must be reduced by 50% (or) A considerable re-evaluation fee paid must be refunded on improving the marks by a certain amount."

The students have also demanded that a photocopy of the re-evaluated answer paper must be provided.

They have also stated that "marks shouldn't be given based on handwriting and the marks should be based on the quality of the answers not the quantity of the content."

Many also accused JNTU of intentionally failing students, claiming that it needed money that it would get in the form of students applying for re-evaluation.

This is also not the first time that such allegations have been leveled against the university.

Last year too, several students claimed that professors spend very little time to correct each paper, and complaints in the past on lapses in the evaluation process, went unheard.

At the time, the Times of India reported that JNTU received nearly 15 lakh answer sheets, which are 32 pages each, for which it ropes in more than 1,000 evaluators. These evaluators get 120 answer sheets to correct in eight hours, which translates to roughly four minutes on every correction.

However, there has not been a positive response from JNTU authorities.

Multiple attempts to contact N Yadaiah, JNTU-H registrar, went unanswered.

Speaking to Times of India, he said, "The university cannot be blamed for the evaluation process. It is the college management that is responsible for deputing faculty members for evaluation. We have taken every possible step to keep up the quality of corrections. However, if students have concerns, they can always approach us."

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