The Telangana government has partially rolled back its decision on external evaluation for Summative Assessment (SA) examinations in government schools after strong opposition from teachers’ associations.
On 30 September 2026, the School Education Department issued revised guidelines limiting external evaluation to Class IX students across all 33 districts of the state and to Class VI students in only nine districts on a pilot basis.
Earlier, the department had planned external evaluation for SA-I and SA-II answer scripts of students from Classes I to IX (or in some reports up to Class X) across the entire state. Under the original system, answer scripts would be collected at the school level on the same day and sent to Mandal Resource Centres (MRCs), where teachers from other schools within the mandal would evaluate them to ensure greater objectivity and transparency.
After protests and a meeting of the joint staff council of teacher associations with Education Secretary Dr. Yogita Rana and Director of School Education Dr. E. Naveen Nicholas, the government scaled back the plan.
Class IX: External evaluation will be conducted in all 33 districts.
Class VI: External evaluation limited to nine districts — Adilabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Mulugu, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mahabubabad, Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal, and Sangareddy — as a pilot programme
Examinations will continue to be held at the school level. Headmasters must send answer scripts to the mandal resource centres the same day. Mandal Educational Officers will appoint evaluators, complete the evaluation within three to five days, and upload the marks online. Teachers will not evaluate scripts of students from their own schools.
Teachers’ associations, including PRTU-TS, TPUS, STU-TS, TRTF, TS UTF, and STF, described the original decision as ill-considered and against the spirit of the Right to Education Act. They raised concerns about:
Additional workload and disruption of regular teaching, as teachers would be pulled out for evaluation camps lasting three to five days.
Staff shortages in many schools.
Lack of adequate consultation before introducing the system.
Representatives met senior education officials and submitted representations demanding a full withdrawal of the external evaluation system.
The original guidelines were issued in late August 2026 by the Director of School Education and State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha. The aim was to improve learning outcomes, increase transparency, and reduce the gap between students’ actual abilities and high pass percentages reported by schools. Remuneration of ₹2 per script at primary level and ₹3 at high-school level, along with a lump sum for evaluation camps, had been prescribed.
The partial rollback is being implemented for the upcoming SA-I examinations. Officials have been directed to follow the procedures outlined in the earlier August proceedings for the limited external evaluation that remains.
The decision reflects the government’s response to feedback from teachers while retaining a limited pilot to test the system’s effectiveness.
