Burnt papers: State mulls on marks

VILLUPURAM: Even as state education officials remain undecided on what method to adopt while awarding marks to students whose answer sheets were destroyed in a fire a few days ago, 10th standard students, their parents and teachers from Villupuram are a worried lot. For it was the English paper II answer sheets of 12,000-odd students from this district that were destroyed in the fire in Vellore.

Though the school education minister announced in the assembly that these students need not sit for the examination again, students and parents are gripped with anxiety over the methodology to be adopted by the authorities.

In Chennai, the directorate of government examinations is clueless. Officials say they will wait till minister Thangam Thennarasu returns from a visit to Singapore.

A joint director and a deputy director of government examinations are in Vellore trying to find out if any of the 12,888 mark sheets can be salvaged. There has been only one precedent. Many years ago, about 300 answer sheets fell from a train. As the number was small, the students were asked to write the exam again.

Two methods are being considered for awarding marks for the destroyed English paper II answer-sheets: applying the marks the students had got in English paper I for the second paper as well, and considering the marks they had got in their quarterly and half-yearly exams.

Some educationists are against the idea of awarding marks based on quarterly and half-yearly marks. "It is a language paper. I feel there will not be any major difference in performance between paper I and paper II. We can regard their score in paper I as a standard and award the same marks for paper II," said Kamaraj Municipal Boys' Higher Secondary School headmaster C Ramamoorthy.

Villupuram Girls' Higher Secondary School assistant headmaster P Chandrababu, while endorsing Ramamoorthy's views, advocated scrapping the two-paper pattern for language papers.

However, some students are unhappy about taking the marks they had obtained in paper I as a criterion. "English paper I was very tough when compared to paper II. But we were confident of making amends by doing better in paper II," said J Nazar, a student of Kamaraj Municipal Boys' Higher Secondary School.

Villupuram chief education officer P A Naresh said the performances of students in earlier exams would not be a true indicator of their performance in the public exam. "Students had ample time for preparation before the final exam, and we need to arrive at a scientific approach."

Exam papers destroyed

VILLUPURAM: OVER 30,000 examination papers of Class X, stored for evaluation at the Voorhese Higher secondary school, were destroyed in a fire at Vellore Chennai last week.
Reports said the papers of English II subject were from Villupuram, Chennai, Erode, Madurai and Krishnagiri districts.
Local sources said it was a case of sabotage as the room had no electrical connection and was guarded by three security men.
State Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu has said the affected students need not write the papers again. They would be evaluated according to government norms.

Protest sparks Madurai violence

A night of transgender orgy

VILLUPURAM (KOOVAGAM): Dionysius and Koothandavar may have been kindred souls. As
the annual Koovaagam festival drew to a close on Tuesday night, the
tiny village in Villupuram was swarmed by 25,000 to 35,000 people,
according to police estimates, as transgenders and men alike queued up
to be married to Lord Aravan. More than 100 police officers handled
the crowd.

The marriage was followed by the traditional kummi paattu and much
revelry, drinking and as is traditional, sex. While there were those who had brought their partners along with them to celebrate the evening, there were others who were followed by packs of men and young boys in search of some action. The relentless attention may have been an irritant for some, but with
others it was a business opportunity.

Negotiations were seen being made in several of the darker streets of
Koovagam,one or sometimes two aravanis surrounded by twice the number
of men.When a person pretended to solicit company, he found that the
cost of sex could range from Rs 50 to Rs 5000 or more.

The pricing depended on the age of the aravani, her looks, the
duration of the encounter and the number of people who would be
involved. One aravani offered herself for Rs 250 after merely having
her photograph taken. There were also aravanis simply looking to
celebrate the moment who were willing to have sex for free - on some
occasions aggressively so.

Fields surrounding the village were filled with families from
different villages who were unmindful of the negotiations and
activities happening near them.

More activities, however,were concentrated near the deserted streets
where visitors had parked their buses, cars or vans. The next morning,
at the widows' ceremony, where the aravanis who had married Aravan
mourn his death in battle during the Mahabharat, groups of aravanis
were seen hugging their partners and weeping at their departure.

While there was enough play for the galleries among the younger
aravanis following the traditional breaking of bangles, and loss of
the thali, for several, the grief of a return to reality rang true and
deep.