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Every honest student has had the same uneasy thought at some point: what if the system rewards those who skip while those who show up every day lose out? At Shadan College of Education in Hyderabad, that fear has burst into the open. A group of BEd students has alleged serious irregularities in practical examinations, internship attendance, and internal marks, claiming that classmates who were absent for final practical examinations still passed, and passed with better grades than students who attended regularly. The allegations, now flagged with Osmania University officials, raise uncomfortable questions about how attendance records are kept, verified, and trusted.
The Allegations: What the Students Claim
Five students from Shadan College of Education have alleged irregularities in the BEd practical exams, internship attendance, and internal marks, raising concerns about fairness and transparency in the evaluation process. The claims centre on a simple and explosive charge: attendance records do not reflect reality, and marks were awarded to students who were not present.
One of the students, Aneesunissa, described her disappointment with her semester result in detail. She said she had attended the practical examinations, participated in a learning resource development workshop, submitted assignments on time, and completed her internship. She was informed that the faculty had awarded her 46 marks for the workshop and pedagogy practical exams, a score she understood should correspond to an ‘O’ grade. When the results were published, however, she received a ‘B’ grade, reflecting a score of around 30 and below.
Her deeper allegation goes further. She claimed that certain students who were absent for the final practical examinations had passed and had been given better grades than students who attended classes regularly. She also alleged that some candidates were awarded marks and academic credit despite their non-attendance in exchange for an alleged cash payment connected with the semester internship attendance. According to her account, a WhatsApp conversation referring to such a payment exists, along with other supporting material.
The Evidence the Students Say They Have
Allegations of this gravity stand or fall on evidence, and the students have pointed to several kinds. Aneesunissa said she possessed screenshots, group practical photographs with geo-tags, and other material indicating that certain students who were absent for the final practical examinations had passed with better grades than regular attendees. Geo-tagged photographs are particularly significant in this context because they carry embedded location and time data, making it harder to dispute when and where a photograph was taken.
The alleged WhatsApp conversation about a cash payment is the most serious element of the claims. If genuine, it would suggest not merely sloppy record-keeping but a transactional arrangement around internship attendance. The students have also said they flagged the issue with Osmania University officials, urging them to investigate and verify the records. That escalation matters: it moves the matter from an internal college grievance to a university-level question about the integrity of the affiliated institution’s evaluation process.
It is important to state clearly that these are allegations. They have been reported in the press and raised with university officials, but a formal finding has not been reported. Readers should treat the claims as claims, while recognising that the students have put specific, checkable material behind them.
Why Internship Attendance Matters So Much in BEd Programmes
To understand why this scandal matters, students need to understand the structure of a BEd programme. The Bachelor of Education is a professional teacher-training degree, and its internship or teaching-practice component is not a formality. During the internship, student-teachers go into real schools, teach real classes under supervision, maintain lesson plans and reflective journals, and are assessed on their classroom performance.
Attendance during this phase is the foundation on which everything else rests. A student who was absent from the internship cannot credibly have completed the teaching practice, maintained the required records, or demonstrated classroom competence. Internal marks for pedagogy practicals and workshops are meant to reflect genuine participation. If those marks can be obtained without attendance, the entire assessment loses meaning, and the students who did the work honestly are the ones who suffer.
This is also why the allegation about the workshop marks stings so sharply. Aneesunissa’s account describes a student who did everything right: attended practicals, joined the workshop, submitted assignments on time, completed the internship. To then receive a lower grade than absent peers is, from her perspective, a double injustice: the system failed to reward her effort and appears to have rewarded others’ absence.
The College’s Response
The college has responded to the allegations through a faculty member, Sadanand, who said there was no intention to reduce the marks of any student. He stated that regular attendance alone would not guarantee higher marks, because students also needed to submit records, complete teaching practice, and perform well in examinations.
That response contains an important and generally valid principle: attendance is necessary but not sufficient for good grades. A student can attend every class and still score poorly if their submitted work is weak, just as the meaning and importance of student attendance percentage explains that attendance supports learning but does not replace it. However, the faculty response does not directly address the central allegation, which is not about the relationship between attendance and marks for honest students, but about whether absent students received marks and credit at all.
The gap between the allegation and the response is where the university inquiry becomes essential. Only an independent verification of the attendance registers, practical examination records, and internal assessment sheets against the students’ evidence can establish what actually happened.
The Osmania University Angle
Shadan College of Education is affiliated with Osmania University, and that affiliation is what gives the allegations their wider significance. In the Indian university system, affiliated colleges conduct teaching and internal assessment, but the university sets the standards, approves the syllabi, and ultimately awards the degrees. When students allege that an affiliated college’s attendance and assessment records are unreliable, they are implicitly questioning the value of the degree the university confers.
The students’ decision to flag the matter with Osmania University officials was therefore the correct procedural step. Universities have established mechanisms for investigating such complaints: they can call for attendance registers, cross-check internal assessment records, interview faculty and students, and, where warranted, take action against the college ranging from warnings to disaffiliation proceedings in extreme cases.
For students at affiliated colleges everywhere, the lesson is that the university is the ultimate guarantor of academic standards. Internal college grievance channels should be the first stop, but the affiliating university is the authority of last resort, and approaching it with organised, documented evidence is far more effective than approaching it with rumours.
How Attendance Records Are Supposed to Work
This scandal is, at its core, a story about record-keeping. Attendance systems in colleges are supposed to follow a clear chain: daily marking by the teacher, compilation into monthly or term records, verification by the department, and use of the final percentage for examination eligibility and internal assessment. Practical examinations add another layer: examiners record who appeared, and those appearance records should match the attendance registers.
When that chain breaks down, or is deliberately bypassed, the consequences spread in every direction. Genuine students lose faith in the system. The institution’s credibility suffers. Employers and higher education institutions that rely on the degree’s integrity are misled. And the students who allegedly benefited carry qualifications they did not earn into classrooms where they will one day teach children.
The broader data on attendance in schools shows how seriously education systems take the attendance number at every level. It is not a bureaucratic decoration; it is the basic evidence that learning opportunities were actually used.
How Honest Students Can Protect Themselves
Students reading this story may feel powerless, but there are concrete steps any student can take to protect their own record and to be ready if questions ever arise about their attendance.
Keep personal attendance records. Do not rely solely on the college register. Maintain a dated personal log of every class, practical, workshop, and internship day attended. Note the teacher present and the topic covered. This takes minutes a day and creates an independent record.
Save everything in writing. Keep copies of submitted assignments with submission dates, internship diaries, lesson plans, workshop certificates, and any correspondence with faculty. If marks are ever disputed, this paper trail is the student’s strongest asset.
Photograph participation where appropriate. Group photographs from practicals and workshops, ideally with date metadata intact, corroborate presence. The Shadan College students’ use of geo-tagged photographs shows how powerful such evidence can be.
Know the grievance ladder. Every affiliated college has an internal grievance mechanism, and every university has a process for complaints against affiliated colleges. Students should learn these procedures before they need them, not after.
Track the percentage, not just the days. Knowing the exact attendance percentage at any point in the term lets a student spot discrepancies between their own log and the official record early. The method is straightforward, and the guide on how to calculate attendance percentage walks through it step by step.
The Simple Math Every Student Should Verify
The attendance percentage formula is the student’s basic auditing tool:
Attendance percentage = (Days attended / Total scheduled days) x 100
Suppose a BEd internship phase schedules 60 days. A student who attends 55 has (55 / 60) x 100 = 91.7 percent. A student who attends 20 has 33.3 percent. There is no ambiguity in these numbers, which is precisely why falsified records are so corrosive: they replace an objective measurement with fiction.
Students can also use the formula defensively. If the official record shows a percentage that does not match the student’s personal log, the discrepancy itself becomes evidence. For example, if a student logged 55 attended days out of 60 but the register shows only 40, the gap of 15 days is specific, dated, and challengeable. Vague complaints are easy to dismiss; numbered discrepancies are not.
Working the formula backwards is equally useful for planning. If 60 internship days are scheduled and the programme requires 90 percent attendance for the internship component, the student needs 54 attended days (60 x 0.90 = 54). With 20 days remaining and 38 already attended, the student must attend at least 16 of the remaining 20. This kind of planning keeps honest students safely above every threshold.
What to Watch Next
The key development to watch is Osmania University’s response to the complaint. If the university orders a formal verification of Shadan College’s attendance registers, practical examination records, and internal assessment sheets, the findings will determine whether this remains an allegation or becomes a confirmed case of academic misconduct. The students’ cited evidence, screenshots, geo-tagged photographs, and the alleged WhatsApp conversation, gives investigators concrete material to check.
Beyond this specific case, the scandal may prompt closer scrutiny of attendance and assessment practices at other affiliated teacher-training colleges. Regulators and universities periodically tighten verification after such episodes, and colleges would be wise to audit their own record-keeping before they are asked to.
For students, the enduring lesson is documentation. In any dispute about attendance or marks, the side with dated, specific, verifiable records has the advantage. The Shadan College students understood this; every student should.
For the original reporting on these allegations, readers can refer to the Deccan Chronicle coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Shadan College cash-for-marks allegations?
Five BEd students at Shadan College of Education, Hyderabad, have alleged irregularities in practical examinations, internship attendance, and internal marks. They claim that students who were absent for final practical examinations passed with better grades than regular attendees, and that marks and academic credit were awarded for internship attendance in exchange for an alleged cash payment. The students say they have screenshots, geo-tagged photographs, and a WhatsApp conversation as evidence, and have flagged the matter with Osmania University officials.
How has the college responded to the allegations?
A faculty member, Sadanand, said there was no intention to reduce any student’s marks and stated that regular attendance alone does not guarantee higher marks, since students must also submit records, complete teaching practice, and perform well in exams. The response addresses the general relationship between attendance and grades but does not directly answer the allegation that absent students received marks and credit.
Why is internship attendance so important in a BEd programme?
The BEd internship or teaching-practice component requires student-teachers to teach real classes under supervision, maintain lesson plans and journals, and demonstrate classroom competence. Attendance is the foundation of this assessment: a student absent from the internship cannot credibly have completed the teaching practice. Internal marks for pedagogy practicals are meant to reflect genuine participation.
What can Osmania University do about the complaint?
As the affiliating university, Osmania University can call for the college’s attendance registers and assessment records, cross-check them against the students’ evidence, interview faculty and students, and take action ranging from warnings to stricter measures if misconduct is confirmed. The university is the ultimate guarantor of the academic standards behind the degrees it awards.
How can students protect their own attendance records?
Students should keep a personal dated log of every attended session, save copies of all submitted work with dates, preserve participation evidence such as dated photographs and certificates, learn their institution’s grievance procedures in advance, and track their own attendance percentage through the term so any discrepancy with official records is caught early and can be challenged with specific numbers.
Students who want to verify their own numbers independently can use the free attendance calculator at https://attendancepercentagecalc.com/ to compute their attendance percentage and required days in seconds.
