It was a shock for several students of Mazharul Uloom College in Ambur, Thiruvanelli when they saw that their report cards displayed failing marks, on Saturday, August 12.
These disgruntled students alleged that the mass failure was a ploy by the institute to get more financial gains through retests, and staged a protest against this development, on Monday, August 14.
The college is affiliated with Thiruvalluvar University and consists of 900 students in eight departments. Initially, the protest was initiated by students of the BA in Corporate Economics course and was eventually joined by others, according to The New Indian Express.
The students said that in some departments, only two or three students pass all subjects, while there was not one single all-pass result in other departments, reports The New Indian Express.
"It seems like these failings are deliberate. This would compel students to opt for re-evaluation, which in turn generates income for the institution. We observed a similar pattern last year when our seniors had accumulated arrears,” a third-year student of Corporate Economics said. He also added that this semester, his department does not have even a single student who has passed in all subjects.
Students also started calling out discrepancies in the evaluation pattern.
One student says, "If a student scored 23 out of 25 marks in the internal assessment, it's highly unlikely for them to score anything less than 10 marks in the external exam. Although I cleared all the major subjects with good marks, I have a supplementary in an optional subject. I'm sure there are some issues in the evaluation process."
There have also been errors in the calculation of marks, the students complained. Due to this, it shows in their final result that they have failed, despite scoring well above the passing marks.
Some students also expressed concerns about technical glitches during fee payment. Instances of unsuccessful payment despite the fee amount being debited are abundant. To make matters worse, the extra amount has not been credited back to some students due to server errors.
The Vice Chancellor of Thiruvalluvar University, when questioned, said, "The evaluation process is not manual. If students are confident about their scores then they have the option to request for a re-evaluation."
