Delhi University's first attempt at conducting exams according to the semester scheme was marked by goof-ups, revisions and clarifications leaving students and teachers angry.
“The Reading Gandhi paper in lieu of Qualifying Language came to all exam centres and printed on top was that it is a 50 mark paper for two hours. We all know that the DU website says all concurrent courses will be three hours and 100 marks, but ours is not to question why, so we just wondered and invigilated. At 11-15 a. m -- receiving time written and accepted duly--the college received a notification from the university saying that the paper should be three hours and 75 marks and students should do one more question. Most of the students had handed in their papers and left and so there was no question of giving the rest that extra hour,” said a Facebook comment pasted by an angry Vinita Chandra who teaches English at Ramjas College. “I guess this is what they mean by teething problems, except that for these students their teeth are gone forever!”
“The situation was worsened as the Reading Gandhi paper is taught as an inter-disciplinary course for B.Sc. Math also and all Math students had to take the paper,” said Ms. Chandra when contacted.
Physics Prof. Abha Dev Habib, who is also an executive member of the DUTA, attributes the issues to inherent flaws in the semester scheme. “These are not teething problems, they show a hurried, mindlessly done exercise. The Academic and Executive Council of the university had back-to-back meetings after one day's notice and made the decision to ‘pass' over 54 semester courses,” she said.
This, however, is not a lone case. Associate Physics Prof. Naveen Kaur posted: “Same thing happened with the theory exams of B.Sc (Hons.) Physics III semester practical. We got a paper of 15 marks and 45 minutes duration. The paper was over at 9-45 and around 10-45 we got a fax from DU that this paper was of 20 marks and one hour duration and students had to attempt 20 questions instead of 15, when the principal made an enquiry to the examination branch they stated that we need to re-scale the marks.” Prof. Kaur then went on to state: “So the simple solution is scale everything. Then why to have so much problems…just examine students for one paper and scale them for all the paper. Simple. The students will not be taxed; the preparation of results would be extremely quick.”
