Exam centres at Delhi University experienced some confusion on Tuesday, May 16 when BA students received the wrong question paper in a possible mix-up from the exam branch.
The paper ‘Research and Methodology (SEC Economics)’ was held on Tuesday for the fourth-semester BA programme students at the university. However, when the question papers were distributed, the students claimed to have noticed that there was an error.
“On the front page of the question paper, it said Semester 2 instead of Semester 4 but we thought it was a printing mistake. When we opened the question paper only the first two questions out of eight were from our syllabus,” claimed Aysha Fidha, a second-year student in the BA programme at Miranda House College, Delhi University.
The students are required to attempt five out of the eight questions in the question paper. Students alleged that due to the error, they did not get a choice to choose which questions to attempt and were forced to attempt the two that were from their syllabus.
“We contacted our teachers who agreed that the questions are out of the syllabus. But the university is not acknowledging that there was an issue with the question paper. We wrote to the university on the same day informing them about the error but have not received any confirmation from the exam branch yet,” Fidha added.
The long wait
While a few colleges like Kirori Mal College (KMC) reportedly cancelled the examination due to the confusion, students in other colleges had to wait for two hours at the exam centre to get confirmation from the examination branch.
“When we saw that the question paper stated Semester 2, the invigilators took all the question papers back. But the same papers were redistributed to us and we were told that it is only a printing error… Later, we complained to the invigilator and faculty members that the questions are out of the syllabus,” said Ayush Rah, a student of SGTB Khalsa College.
Students at SGTB Khalsa College were asked to attempt the questions that were in their syllabus and mention the rest in their answer sheets.
However, since the evaluation for SEC papers is done internally by the colleges, the teachers have allegedly assured the students that the department will look into the matter.
Rupali Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, SGTB Khalsa College, explained, “Even though the evaluation is internal, we need to maintain some kind of uniformity in the marking scheme across all colleges. This is to ensure that the students are marked in a fair manner. Many colleges including Hindu College, SGTB Khalsa and others have sent a representation to the Dean of Examination, DU and the Delhi School of Economics but we have not received any response so far. So meanwhile, the faculty members are trying to discuss and decide how should we proceed with the evaluation and what leniency should be given for students.”
Though there is no official response from the university so far, a few students reported that the varsity has denied that there was an error in the question paper.
“At Delhi University, we are very particular with the syllabus and prescribed readings. The question paper was definitely not from their syllabus. There are two papers with the same name for BA Programme and BA (Honours) Economics respectively but the syllabus for both is different. This could be a possible reason behind the mix-up,” Prof Rashmi Sharma explained.
