Faulty marks cards continue to bog down KSOU students

Varsity authorities blame study centres for 'wrong data'

 Despite assurances by Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) that the marks card issue has been sorted out, complaints regarding the same has by hundreds of affected students of the varsity, continues. Varsity authorities say that a majority of the problems have been sorted out, but the complaints are due to errors by study centres of KSOU.

Narasimhaiah K L, had enrolled for BA programme offered by the varsity in 2010-11.

While there are no complaints regarding the marks cards issued to him after completing his first year, marks card of two remaining years is yet to be issued to him.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, he said that even though he received marks card of the second year, he was marked absent in one of the exams. “It came as a shock to me as I had attended all examinations. I complained to the authorities, who instructed me to submit proof for attending examinations.

However, the marks card was not sent to me, as officials of the varsity lost the documents I had submitted. I submitted the documents again. This time, the marks card of second year was not issued,” he said. Even though he wrote exams for BA third year in 2013-14, he is yet to get marks cards of the two years.

“If the varsity had issued my marks card I would be pursuing Post Graduate programme by now. The delay and mistakes have cost me a year,” Narasimhaiah, who is employed in Bengaluru, said.

In the case of Vijayalakshmi, also a student of BA at the varsity, marks entered in her marks card were faulty. The student who was doing her majors in Hindi, she received 18 marks. When she sought a photocopy of the answer sheet, it was learnt that the evaluator had not entered the marks she had received in the exam, even though she had received more than 80 marks.

In the case of Rangappa Uppar, even though the varsity issued him corrected marks card after several complaints, KSOU was yet to issue passing certificate to the candidate. Rangappa wondered how KSOU authorities in Mysuru failed to add the internal marks scored by him.

“I had sent a request letter about adding the internal marks to my marks card, which was done after considerable delay. In the meantime, authorities at KSOU and regional centre in Belagavi blamed one another for the problems faced by me,” he said.

K J Suresh, Registrar (Evaluation), said that the varsity was receiving 15-20 such complaints on a daily basis. “The problems are not due to KSOU or the firm that issues marks card. Local study centres, where internal assessment of candidates are done, often send wrong data of the marks secured by the candidate, leading to such problems,” he said.

Even though there were several such complaints during the last academic year, majority of the issues have been sorted and marks card are being distributed on time, he said. He said that KSOU has written to the study centres to send data of candidates correctly, so that such mistakes can be avoided.