Protests continue over PU goof-ups as govt attempts damage control

High drama ensued throughout the day on the premises of the Department of Pre University Education (DPUE) in Malleswaram here on Friday as parents and students refused to call off their protests over anomalies in the results of II PU examinations.

Volunteers of several students organisations gathered in front of the office raising slogans against government “apathy”.  Protests have been continuing ever since the results were on announced on May 18. Students have alleged large-scale goof-ups in the results. 

The delay on the part of the DPUE and government officials in responding to the situation only angered the protesters more. Late in the afternoon, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar visited the DPUE office and interacted with students and the officials. Ironically, it was JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and senior BJP leader S Suresh Kumar who reached there much before the officials concerned decided to act on the situation.  

While many students complain that their overall marks were lower than the grace marks itself (grace marks were given in Maths and English), Ratnakar clarified that grace marks would be given to only those who have attempted the question. “Grace marks is not a gift. It will be given to a student only if he/she has attempted the question. This has been the rule of the DPUE for the past several years and this has been followed this year as well.” 

Further, with regard to complaints by some students that they were marked absent even though they appeared for the exam, Ratnakar said such a mistake would have happened if the candidate wrote the exam sitting in another person’s designated seat. Students sitting next to each other would be of different streams and it could have so happened that the other person did not have his exam on that day and the candidate in question would have sat in the empty seat available, thereby being marked as absent. 

There were also instances where a candidate has deliberately written the exam on someone else’s register number to get the benefit of that candidate’s score. Some students complain that in spite of securing maximum marks in practicals and having scored around 51 all together, they have still failed in the exam.

This only means that the candidate has not scored the minimum requisite 21 marks in the theory exam, according to the minister. In case of being marked absent in spite of having written the exam, all that the candidate has to do is to produce a letter from the college and the error would be rectified, Ratnakar promised. He assured that any genuine errors made by the department would be rectified as soon as possible. 

If there was an error on the part of students in the exam hall, either with respect to sitting in the seat designated to them or entering the correct registration number, the minister failed to clarify how this could have escaped the notice of the invigilators and whether the government would initiate any action against them.