JOIN USBarred BU colleges hold exams
An investigation into a nexus involving Bangalore University officials and private college managements reveals that Bangalore University has violated its own decision to accord permit nine out of eleven colleges to conduct examinations for bachelor of education degrees (BEd).
Documents reviewed by Deccan Herald show that permissions was given by Registrar (Evaluation) R K Somashekar and later approved by Board of Examination (BOE) Chairperson Roopmala R Koneri. Through this, BEd colleges which had no permission to conduct classes, allegedly for poor infrastructure were allowed to let students to appear for exams. None of these students had attended classes or met the minimum criterion for course work.
Earlier this year, following the report of BU’s Local Inquiry Committee (LIC) noting irregularities in these colleges, the Academic Council had withheld their affiliation. The vice-chancellor also constituted a special task force (on May 21, 2012) to revisit these colleges and to give a comprehensive report of the state of affairs.
At a recent university Syndicate meeting held on September 5, it was decided to wait for the task force report on these colleges to decide their affiliation status.
Taking a U-turn on the university’s decision, nine of the blacklisted colleges received approval to conduct practical exams from the Registrar’s (Evaluation) office. The decision was taken without consulting either the academic council or the syndicate, the university’s advisory bodies.
Surprisingly, the dates of approval show that the permission for the colleges to conduct exams was given after the exams began. Exams were scheduled to begin from Sept 11.
A few of the approvals were given on Sept 13 and some others on Sept 21. Also, in an apparent attempt to avoid the scrutiny of the task force, many colleges conducted the exam before the scheduled dates, advancing the date to Sept 3, it is alleged.
Rules specify that colleges have to get approval at least three days before the exam. But records show that each college had conducted the exam on different dates and the approval was given in some cases, on the day of the exam, and in others, after the exam had commenced.
Sources at BU told Deccan Herald that students had neither been given hall tickets nor paid the exam fee thereby taking the exam out of the purview of the monitoring system.
The practical exam for BEd students constitutes prescribed hours of teaching in a school chosen by their respective institutions. Task Force members who visited the colleges during the scheduled time of the exam as recorded by the university documents, were not able to find students at the exam centres.
In the permission letters for the exam, colleges have stated they are drafting lecturers from another college for internal exam. This is also in violation of the rules as the university mandates that internal examiners have to be chosen among lecturers who have taught the students in the classroom. This reflects that the colleges in question do not have adequate lecturers in their college, a member of the Task Force said.
When spoken to about the issue, Bangalore University Registrar (Evaluation) R K Somashekar, whose signature appears on all the permission letters, said “he is not a party in the case and has not authorised colleges for the exam” and that he was not aware of the issue as he had been traveling from more than a week.
Roopmala R Koneri pleaded ignorance and said, “clarification in this regard can be issued only by the university officials.”
Condoning a wrong
The nine colleges that have been given permission
* St Joseph’s College of Education
* The Regency College of Education
* Huliappa Mallamma BEd College
* Smt Manjula Mallesh College of Education
* Jnana Vikas College of Education
* Rajiv Gandhi College of Education
* Bangalore City College of Education
* Amitha BEd College
* Unity College of Education