Delhi University sends wrong paper for semester exam

Delhi University possibly goofed up again on Monday. Students of BA (honours) courses were prepared to attempt the contemporary English paper in the second semester but were instead given the question papers for another credit course called individual and society. They were shocked, anxious and angry even as college officials ran up and down to figure out the next step.

Students had to wait for up to two hours before the correct question paper could be delivered at all colleges. At some places, the exam began as late as 12 noon when it was scheduled to get over.

"It was our first exam on Monday. As soon as we got the paper, we realized that it was not our course. For half an hour after that, nobody seemed to know what was to be done. The exam finally started around 11am. We felt really let down as we had to waste so much time," said a BA (H) economics student at Shri Ram College of Commerce.

While students of BA (H) English study individual and society, those pursuing other BA (honours) programmes take contemporary English as their language credit course. Though earlier it carried only 50 marks, the total marks have been increased to 100 from this time.

In November last year, students writing a paper called 'reading Gandhi' were told midway through the exam that the paper would carry 75 marks instead of 50 and that they were to do one more question. Several students had left by then.

Vinita Chandra, English faculty, Ramjas College, said they could start the exam only around 12 noon on Monday. "The university faxed us a handwritten copy of the correct paper after which we had to make 400-500 photocopiesDifferent colleges got the correct paper at different times. Where was the secrecy?" she questioned. The DU exam authority blamed the English department for giving the same code to two papers. "The exam branch is only a facilitator and the paper is set and tagged by the department. They gave the same codes to both papers and the exam branch ended up picking the wrong one. We will order an inquiry," said a senior official.

He added that the paper was handwritten as it was lying in the storage. "At least the exam branch could salvage the situation by locating the paper and sending it to colleges within an hour and a half," said vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh.

Matric exam concludes, over 10,000 held for cheating in Odisha

It seems the efforts of the Board of Secondary Education to check malpractices in the matriculation exam have yielded results, with 10,015 students booked for cheating this year. This is the highest number of examinees ever caught for using unfair means in the matriculation examinations. The examinations got over on Thursday.

Last year, 7,000 students were booked for malpractices, while in 2010, the figure was 2,046. This year, around 6,372 examinees were booked for malpractice in regular stream and the rest were ex-regular examinees. Board officials said the maximum number of cheating cases was reported from Sambalpur central zone. Board officials have expressed concern over the rising number of malpractice cases.

"This year a record number of students have been booked. The figures themselves speak about the gravity of the problem, malpractice in matriculation exam has become a deep rooted problem," said Satyakam Mishra, president of the board. The students booked for malpractice will be debarred from appearing in matriculation exam for three years.

Apart from the students, the board has also decided to take stringent action against 14 invigilators and six centre superintendents who were found guilty of abetting malpractice.

"We have written to the state government to take stringent action against the invigilators and centre superintendents who were found abetting malpractice," said Nihar Mohapatra, board secretary.

Evaluation of answer sheets will begin from May 1 and will continue till May 15. Answer scripts will be corrected at 71 centres across the state and more than 21,000 teachers will be involved in the process.

The board has decided to transport the answer sheets directly to the evaluation centres from the examination centres to avoid wastage of time.

"Earlier answer sheets were collected at a receiving centre and from there they were sent to evaluation centres. In the process, seven days were lost, so this time we have decided to transport the answer sheets directly from the exam centre to evaluation point," said Mishra.

Board officials have informed that the results would be out by first week of July. This year atleast 5.11 lakh students appeared for the matriculation examination at 2,261 centres across the state. Over 122 flying squads were formed to keep vigil on these centres.

The matriculation examination had started on March 19, but on March 21, question papers of seven subjects were stolen from an exam centre, Bhagabati Vidyapitha, in Puri district following which the exam was stalled . The exam resumed on April 17 and concluded on Thursday.

Evaluation of UP Board answer sheets begins

The evaluation of copies UP Board high school and intermediate exams started on Thursday amid tight security.

Additional secretary, UP Board, Vinod Krishna said 236 evaluation centres have been set up across the state and 1,14,000 examiners deputed for evaluation.

At Allahabad, nine evaluation centres have been set up. These are Government Inter College, CAV Inter College, KP Inter College, Dr KP Jaiswal Inter College, Sewa Samiti Inter College, Agrasen Inter College, Jamuna Christian Inter College, Bharat Scouts and Guides School and Kesar Vidyapeeth. In Allahabad, 6,500 examiners will evaluated the copies.

This year, a total of 2,46,947 students appeared in the board examinations from Allahabad. Out of these, 1,37,809 appeared in high school and 1,09,138 in intermediate exams.