PESHAWAR, Oct 21: Ban on re-checking of the failed papers of the students by the Board of Technical Education has become an albatross around the necks of the students who want to get their failed paper re-checked, several students told Dawn on Monday.

More than one thousand students, who have been declared failed in one or two subjects this year, had to face severe embarrassment when they were told that the board would not re-check their failed papers but would only re-total their marks in the papers concerned.

“Our papers were not that bad to be failed. Therefore, we deposited Rs200 to get our papers re-checked but the authorities at the office refused to re-check the papers and accepted our applications for re-totalling of the marks only,” said several students near the technical board.

According to them, the officials carried out the re-totalling of their marks which did not help any student and all the applicants were again declared failed.

“We cannot entertain the applications for re-checking of the failed papers and we do only re-totalling of the marks of the students. If there happens any mistake in the totalling of the marks, we correct them,” said an officer of the NWFP Technical Board.

According to him, an ordinance was promulgated in the early nineties which banned the re-checking of the failed papers. He said there were widespread complaints of irregularities in the re-checking of the papers which prompted the then NWFP governor Amir Gulistan Janjua to ban the re-checking of the papers.

The official admitted that due to ban on re-checking of the failed papers thousands of students were being deprived of the opportunity to continue their studies. This misfortune befalls even on those who miss passing their paper by only one mark.

One student Nazar Ali said that he had cleared all papers in D.Com (Diploma in Commerce) with good marks but failed in English by only 6 marks and secured 34 marks instead of 40. According to him, he was hundred per cent confident of getting more than seventy marks in English paper. He said he was shocked to see the result and immediately applied for re-checking of the paper, because, he said, he was sure the examiner had not given marks of a one or two questions which he had “successfully attempted.”

“We are human beings and therefore are prone to leaving one or two questions unmarked. The students should be given the right to re-check their papers, so that they are saved from embarrassment,” said an examiner. He said it was an old practice which benefited the intelligent students.

The government should re-consider this decision and allow the board to re-check the failed papers instead of re-totalling, said the examiner.