‘Exam directorate cheated me’

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The directorate of government examinations finds itself in a piquant position with a teenager girl accusing it of manipulating her plus-two answer scripts to reduce marks and demolish her dream of doing medicine.

DGE Vasundhara Devi has ordered a probe and is seriously considering calling forensic experts to prove that the girl is lying. M. Karthika, 17, of the AKS government girls' higher secondary school, Srivaikundam in Thoothukudi, had sought copies of her answer sheets to verify why she got only 639 (out of 1200) whereas she expected above 1100 to be able to bid for a medical seat.

And when the DGE sent her the copies after collecting the due fee, she alleged they were not hers even though her registration number was mentioned on the sheets.

In effect, she accused the DGE of not only under-valuing her papers but also trying to cover up the mess by replacing her answer sheets with fake ones.

“We called Karthika for enquiry on July 9. Initially the girl insisted she had done her exams very well and that the answer sheets we showed her now were not hers, but after a while, she admitted that she was making these wrong claims because of her confused state of mind.

She left after giving us a letter of apology,” Vasundhara Devi told Deccan Chronicle, insisting that the handwriting in the answer sheets matched the girl's. "We may have to requisition the services of forensic experts if she continues to accuse us like this".

When asked for her version, Karthika said she was forced by the DGE officials to write that letter of apology. She had scored 1026 marks in the half-years exams and was expected much more in the finals, she said.

But her class teacher P Evangelin said the girl got only 655 in the half-yearly and she had in fact failed in Chemistry.

“She was a below-average student,” she said, indicating that Karthika's could be yet another instance of children buckling under the intense pressure from families to perform beyond their capabilities.