Please pass me, my life is in your hands: MP boys to board examiners

‘I am about to get married. Please pass me (in the MP Board examination), because if I fail my mother-in-law will taunt me,’ a class 12 student wrote on her answer sheet.

The fear of failure is so high among students writing the Madhya Pradesh Classes 10 and 12 board examinations that some of them have turned to desperate measures like requesting evaluators to pass them. Last year evaluators had found Rs.100 and Rs.500 notes attached to some answer sheets.

An examiner in Seoni’s School of Excellence examination centre said he got an emotional note with an answer sheet of a student saying, ‘My life is in your hands.’ The Class 10 student also left requested the evaluator to pass him in the examination.

Evaluation of Class 10 and 12 board examination commenced on March 20. Evaluators have so far completed examining 70% copies and expect to complete the process by April 30. The MP Board results are likely to be announced by second week of May.

Evaluators say the messages left behind by students are at times “funny”, but a few are more serious and emotional.

“These notes reflect the fear of failing in examinations among students. Anxiety has forced students to resort to such methods,” said evaluation centre superintendent RP Borkar.

Read more: UP board examiners get requests, bribes, threats for pass grade

“I have asked examiners to inform me at the earliest after such a note is found…I have also asked them not be careless while correcting the copies. But numbers and grades will be given on the basis of performance only,” he said, adding that he may even consider to file an FIR if more such messages crop up.

Three similar cases have been reported from Bhind and Seoni last year, where students left Rs100 to Rs 500 notes in between answer sheets. In 2014, a B Ed students of Indore’s Devi Ahilya University also left a Rs. 500 note inside the answer sheet to bribe the examiner. The university administration had filed an FIR against two students on the basis of their roll numbers on the answer sheet.

Over 30 students have committed suicide across the state this year allegedly to the fear of failure in examinations. In several cases students left behind suicide notes saying they were taking the step for fear of failure. On March 5, Abhishek Sahu, 17, left behind a note saying: “Sorry, mummy-papa, I cannot do physics. I don’t want to fail in the examination,” before hanging himself at his house in Hoshangabad district.