Bangalore University’s BCom students who appeared for the odd semester exams in November and answered question papers that had many errors will have to wait for some more time for the university’s verdict on the issue.
Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor Prof B Thimme Gowda told Deccan Herald on Monday that no official complaint in the matter had reached him. However, he would immediately look into the matter, he added.
“The Board of Examiners is responsible for setting the question papers. They take about eight days to compile the question paper. It is their mandate to carefully go through the questions before sending the papers,” Prof Gowda said.
Mistrust
Some Commerce lecturers expressed mistrust in the entire procedure, saying that it required an overhaul.
A lecturer requesting anonymity said: “There is no organised approach in setting the papers. Bangalore University has to take a cue from the pre-university department and the SSLC Board, where not only high level of security is maintained, but also well laid out guidelines are followed in setting the paper.”
Lecturers familiar with the manner in which question papers are set in BU said the selection procedure of the faculty who set the papers has to be reworked. The Commerce lecturer who spoke to Deccan Herald said that often, familiarity takes precedence over experience in the selection procedure.
“The university must ensure that all those setting the paper do the job in one centre and they should complete it in three or four days.”
‘Paper was difficult’
“I agree that the paper was difficult this time. All the evaluators will meet this Friday to decide on the scheme of evaluation. Whatever we decide will be in the interest of students,” said K M Nagaraj, president, Bangalore University College Teachers’ Association.
Noting that there might have been minor errors in the question paper, he maintained
that no question was out of syllabus.
Earlier, there was a practise of issuing an errata in the exam hall if there were mistakes in the questions.
However, this approach is not practical. It would not be possible to issue an errata to all centres in the last minute, he added.