Many students of various degree colleges in Kashmir Thursday contested results of third semester exams declared by Kashmir University as flawed, saying a majority has been failed in Botany and Chemistry subjects.
The result was declared recently more than one year afterthe varsity held the exams.
The students put the blame on the KU authorities saying theywere not revealing the answer key on basis of which the OMR sheets wereevaluated.
“Besides OMR sheets, there are discrepancies in evaluation ofdescriptive portion as well. The evaluators have not evaluated our answerscripts properly which has subjected the students to mental trauma,” said anaggrieved student from among a group of female students.
They however added that the result of some studentsinitially declared failed in Botany was improved a day after their protest.
“How come the KU authorities evaluated the answer scripts inone night and declared students as qualified?” another student questioned.
Controller examination in KU, Prof Farooq Ahamd Mir saidthey had conducted two separate papers of botany subject but had mistakenlyadopted only one answer key for two OMR sheets at the time of resultdeclaration.
“After students approached us with their complaint, we usedanother answer key to evaluate the OMR sheets and the result of some studentsimproved,” Mir said.
The students were enrolled in the undergraduate courses in2016 and were supposed to complete their degree by the end of 2018. But the threeyears course got stretched up to four years owing to the delayed exams anddeclaration of results.
Most of the students from 2016 batch are presently appearingin the backlog exams of their 2nd semester.
“We are in 5th semester this time but we are overburdenedwith the backlog exams,” the students say.
In the previous annual system of exams, there used to be oneexam in a year but after introduction of semester system two exams are held.
“Besides regular exams, the backlog exam is also heldsemester-wise which has put the students under pressure,” the students say.
The students questioned the varsity authorities for itsfailure to declare results in a time bound manner, saying inordinate delay incompletion of exams delays their degree.
“3rd semester exam was held in 2017 and results weredeclared in 2019. Also, the 4th semester exam was held in 2018 but the resultwas declared before the result of 3rd semester exams was declared which raisesquestions over the KU examination department,” a student said.
Last year, a majority of the 2016 batch students fromvarious colleges were declared failed in their first semester exams evokingwidespread criticism against the varsity.
In every semester students are failed due to flawedevaluation adding burden of backlog exams on us. Most of our time has gotconsumed while appearing in regular and backlog exams, the students said.
After introduction of the semester system, performance of amajority of the college students has suffered backlog exams mount in every semester.
Controller examination, Mir, while defending the evaluationsaid a three-member team was constituted to assess the evaluation of answerscripts and a few Chemistry subject answer scripts were taken as a sample.
“The team has submitted its report and has unanimouslystated that the evaluation is up to the mark. We have students from 50 collegesbut only few students make hue and cry over evaluation,” Mir said.