Kerala announces 'revised' class X results

After dithering for six days, the Kerala government on Sunday came out with the revised class X senior school-leaving certificate results which showed minor differences from the flawed one which was released earlier.

The SSLC results that were announced last Monday had glaring omissions when it was found that some of those candidates who did not even appear for the examinations were given grades while those who did were not.

Besides, there were anomalies when it came to grace marks for those who took part in extra-curricular activities.

On April 20, when the results were announced, out of the 4,68,273 students who appeared for the examination, 4,58,841 were declared eligible for higher studies.

The overall pass percentage then was 98.57 percent and on Sunday when the revised results were published it stood at 97.99 percent and the total number of those who had passed went up from 4,58,841 to 4,61,542.

'A+' grade was given to 12,287 students in all subjects and when the revised results were published, another 2,700 students also obtained 'A+' grades in all subjects.

The Kerala government, in general, and the education minister, in particular, came under heavy attack following the goof-up. The errors surfaced after the results were published on the government website.

Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb and his Indian Union Muslim League party tried to wash their hands off the controversy and blamed the software of the National Informatics Centre.

Things turned for the worse when Director of Public Instructions Gopalakrishna Bhat said the reason for the embarrassing situation was human error, which occurred in the data-entry level.

While Rabb took moral responsibility for the glitch, he dismissed the Left opposition's demand for his resignation.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy came to the defence of the education department and said media was exaggerating reports. He also said the errors which were reported occurred often.