Hyderabad, March 2 (IANS): The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has decided to give a five-minute grace period for students appearing for ongoing intermediate examinations.

The Board amended the rule following the suicide of a student in Adilabad district after he was allegedly not allowed to write the exam for being one minute late.

With the Board coming under flak from the student community and parents, it decided to give a grace period of five minutes for students arriving late due to unavoidable circumstances.

Nearly 10 lakh students of 11th and 12th classes are attending the Intermediate public examinations which began across the state on February 28.

The exam begins at 9 a.m. every day. Authorities had been strictly implementing the rule that those arriving even a minute late would not be allowed into the exam centres. At some exam centres, students were seen breaking down after they were not allowed to be one minute late.

Students depending on public transport to reach the exam centres were badly affected by the rule. The Board came under criticism for not giving the leeway to students who are unable to reach due to non-availability of TSRTC buses, traffic jams or some other unavoidable reason.

T. Sivakumar (18), an intermediate first-year student in Adilabad district, ended his life after he was not allowed into the exam centre on February 29 for being late by one minute late. Officials, however, said the student had not come to the exam centre. They suspect that he may have taken the extreme step due to exam-related stress.

A total of 9,80,978 students have applied for the exams. While 4,78,718 students are appearing for the first-year exams, 5,02,260 students will write second-year exams.

The exams will continue till March 19.

Meanwhile, the Board also announced that the evaluation of answer sheets will be taken up from March 4. The evaluation exercise will be completed on March 24.