The under graduate students of Bangalore university have been keeping their fingers crossed for quite sometime now. The students are not mightily thrilled with the outcome of their results with the exception of a select few.

One might wonder what is so novel about this scenario, after all one can only hope to get results which construes to their calibre. Yet when the results hit the headlines of the media for all the wrong reasons it becomes a cause of concern to the general public. A review on the subject with the students of various streams revealed different dimensions to the issue.

The students, both the earnest and the not so earnest variety consulted on the subject surprisingly had a philosophic note in their observation of their examinations and results which is reflected in a verse from the Bhagvad Gita which says that one has the right only to perform one’s duty and not to expect any results.

They have apparently resigned themselves to their fates because they have simply lost faith in the system. Their seniors and sometimes even their teachers seem to have nothing but contempt for the semester system, the prescribed syllabus, university examinations, results and degrees obtained thereby and this pessimistic attitude has rubbed off on to the students.

They are aware that the ball is no longer in their court; they have been enrolled for the course and will have to undergo the exercise unless they do not mind undergoing a transfer to another university or forgo an academic year in search of better options.

Sure enough there have been enough confusion and chaos to endorse their fear. Several students have been awarded marks far less than what was expected and many students who had no hope of even scraping through have cleared the papers with decent marks making the students reinforce their negative opinion of the university.

 While most students expressed their lack of faith in the evaluation system a cross section of university lecturers had their set of woes to share. They revealed that in spite of having a very systematic evaluation system, they were harried for time more than ever in the present semester system, moreover, the facility of “re-totalling” and “revaluation” for the students made the process more transparent.

Though the arrangement seems fair to all concerned the students pointed out to another hitch in the system. While the students who scored lesser than their expectations invariably availed this facility at a cost they complained that the ones who were awarded more marks than they deserved were the ones who benefited from the “oversight” of the evaluators because they would never apply for the “necessary correction”.

The evaluators feel taxed with the sea of answer scripts and are finding the entire works very tiring, more so because they are engaged in evaluation twice over an academic year. They are accountable to the chief examiner as well as the students. If they make a mess of the correction they can be even sued in the court of law for not taking up their responsibility seriously.

 Just about everybody consulted on the subject felt that Bangalore University has not come of age to handle the semester system because there were hundreds of colleges under its wings. The introduction of a question paper with multiple choices in the even semesters has been proposed as a possible remedy to the situation. This measure if implemented certainly lightens the onus on the evaluators but would dilute the value of the degree to a large extent.

The teaching faculty pointed out that students already show a consistent allergy to writing and this system would drive the last nail in the coffin of the written word besides giving way to guess work and malpractice during examinations. Language and analysis skills will take a back seat forever crippling the future generations of students. Perhaps the only way to get out of this potential crisis is to get back to the academic scheme of graduation studies.

But then one cannot really boast of a past that has been crystal clear. There have been instances of corruption of every sort while the undergraduate courses were functioning under the academic scheme. On conditions of anonymity, a few lecturers revealed that all was not well all the time. Evaluators were sometimes forced to compromise and mark under political and financial pressures.

Lecturers who earned paltry salaries and the ones who were in need of some extra amount did not mind skimming through answer scripts and marking them without a pang of conscience for they firmly believe that the payer calls the tune.

Sometimes teachers who have not taught the subject were also roped in to correct answer scripts in order to finish the job within the deadline. These bleak revelations leaves much to be desired and it is high time the system has to change for the better. Transparency should become the order of the day and the system should become completely answerable to the students. If the process of evaluation becomes reliable then the credibility of Bangalore University will certainly shoot up.

This dream can translate into a reality if all earnest educators uphold their integrity and if the authorities oversee their effort by enforcing a few stringent and relevant laws which can help us leap forward without  any strings attached and wipe that questioning frown  off the brow of its students.