A month after more than 700 students failed the first-year examination of the BSc Allied Health Sciences conducted by the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), the university has devised a workaround by conducting supplementary examinations for the students who failed.

In response to several representations and protests by the students, the university admitted its fault in releasing erroneous results, in which 715 students failed the examination.

However, it stated that promoting all the failed students was not feasible and that a supplementary examination would be conducted instead, the students said, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

Extra classes

Extra classes and mock tests are being conducted to prepare the students for the supplementary examinations.

The Gandhi Medical College (GMC) has also released the schedule for the extra classes, which will be conducted from the first week of July. The classes are to be held from July 7 to July 31, five days a week, from Monday to Friday, with a weekly test at the end of each week.

A GMC student told The New Indian Express, "The VC told us that they cannot promote all the students to the second year and would rather conduct a supplementary exam. We also gave a representation to the state health minister for the right course of action in this regard, and he assured us that he would put forward our concern to the chief minister, but there has been no progress on that end so far. We are now attending extra classes in the college and preparing for the supplementary exams."

Uncertainty over dates

Dr Hima Bindu, associate professor in the Physiology department at GMC and a faculty for the course, told The New Indian Express, "We have introduced the remedial examination for those students who failed the first-year examination, and extra classes are being conducted regularly. We are briefing the students with a focus on difficult subjects and also encouraging self-study so they can clear the remedial examination. As of now, the schedule for the supplementary examination is not finalised, but it will be conducted after the theory examinations of the MBBS course, most likely at the end of August or the first half of September."

Students also mentioned that the second-year session was put on hold and will only begin after September, most probably in November or December. This would mean a delay of at least six months, as the annual session would ideally start in June-July, leaving little time to finish the syllabus and prepare for the second-year examination.

The only positive action in the whole episode was that the university released the syllabus for the second year in advance, unlike the ambiguous first-year syllabus when the course started.

It is to be noted that the course was introduced in 2023, and this was the first batch of students who appeared for the first-year exam in April for the 2023-24 session.