The curious case of PU repeaters, but in another stream

The PU department has come across a number of students who have applied for the II PU exams again, despite passing the exam in another stream, but not surrendering their previous stream’s certificate.

The II PU exams begin on Friday, with 6.14 lakh students across 1,032 centres.
Although they would not be allowed to write the exam, a supplementary exam might be arranged in April to save their academic year, if they surrender their certificates.   

According to the department’s rules, no student can change the stream or combination and reappear for the exam (after having passed out) without surrendering their previous stream’s certificates.

While the department has got at least eight confirmed cases of the same, officials suspect that there might be many more. Pallavi Akurathi, director, Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE), said such cases surfacing this year might be related to the digitisation of information of PU students that started recently. 

Akurathi said it might be a case of both students and colleges being at fault.  “Some students may have kept both the certificates to increase their opportunities,” she said. It might also be that the students were ignorant and colleges took fees without informing them of the rules.

“In case we find that colleges have admitted students with mala fide intentions, action will definitely be taken against them.”  
 
No CCTVs even this year

Last year, the PU department had mooted a proposal to instal a number of CCTV cameras in various examination centres. However, Pallavi said that there was no word from the government on such a move even this year. Students will not be allowed to carry electronic gadgets like mobiles and scientific calculators (only simple calculators will be allowed).