Deccan Herald:Friday, January 13, 2012.
Following the unprecedentedly good results in the Delhi University semester exams held in November-December, teachers of the University have claimed that they were asked to set easy question papers and be lenient in their markings of the answersheets.
The teachers say that the university wanted them to be generous in awarding marks as that would make the semester system popular.
“We were told by the authorities to make easy question papers so that all the students pass, I objected and also gave it in writing to the Vice Chancellor (VC) that this is not possible. We have to maintain some standards of higher education,” said Naveen Gaur, professor of Physics, Dyal Singh College.
Students were astounded to find out that they have got perfect 75 marks in all four theory papers of Physics in Miranda House College. “A girl from BSc Physics (Hons) got around 99 per cent,” Gaur said.
A professor from Department of Germanic and Romance studies on conditions of anonymity said that the teachers were forced to give more marks: “I have told students not to be happy about their high scores as the majority of the students haven’t really faired well. The marks awee not given according to their merit,” she said.
Implementation of the semester system drew heavy criticism from teachers and students. Many were surprised to see the first set of results declared in the last week of December, just three weeks after the exams were over.
Three students of BA Economics (Hons) scored 99 per cent in the first semester. Around 390 answer scripts in Economics theory papers were awarded perfect 75. The trend of over 90 per cent marks continued in subjects like BA(Hons) Urdu, Philosophy and Hindi.
Gaur said in Satyawati College, 37 students got first class in Political Science.
“The University’s records in the past years show that never did so many students from one college get first class in one subject. That number of first classes to used to be total reported in the entire University in one subject,” the teacher added.
More shocking for the teachers was the free flow of marks in social science subjects, usually hard to score.
“In Hindu College, the highest marks in political science is over 80 per cent. Similar trends are seen in History (H),” said Irsh Mishra, professor of political science in Hindu College.
According to Abha Dev Habib, Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) member and physics teacher at Miranda House college, students who could not even write a letter in correct English were given over 90 per cent. “My own students are laughing. Many students who did not do well got such inflated marks,” Habib said.
To pass all the students, more than 10 marks were increased after the evaluated mark sheets went to the controller of examination.
“Though the University has a right to moderate marks to pass the student after the examiner has marked the papers, the varsity went overboard. I did not give such high marks, but when the result came out there was a high disparity in the marks given by teachers and the marks out,” said Ujjaini Ray, Professor of History in Lady Sriram College (LSR).
She said many are unable to believe the teachers did not give such high marks and suggested filing RTI to get the OMR sheets where it is impossible to change the marks given by the teachers.
“The second and third year students are unhappy because the employer will not ask them why they got 50 or 60 per cent marks when their juniors are scoring in 90’s,”Ray added.
Teachers say stricter evaluation is to make students decide if they would like to continue in a subject.
“This is the death of a university. A degree from DU won’t be of any value if marks are awarded like this. People will stop taking us seriously,”Habib said.
The office of Controller of Examinations, D S Jaggi refused to comment when contacted.
“We were told by the authorities to make easy question papers so that all the students pass, I objected and also gave it in writing to the Vice Chancellor (VC) that this is not possible. We have to maintain some standards of higher education,” said Naveen Gaur, professor of Physics, Dyal Singh College.
Students were astounded to find out that they have got perfect 75 marks in all four theory papers of Physics in Miranda House College. “A girl from BSc Physics (Hons) got around 99 per cent,” Gaur said.
A professor from Department of Germanic and Romance studies on conditions of anonymity said that the teachers were forced to give more marks: “I have told students not to be happy about their high scores as the majority of the students haven’t really faired well. The marks awee not given according to their merit,” she said.
Implementation of the semester system drew heavy criticism from teachers and students. Many were surprised to see the first set of results declared in the last week of December, just three weeks after the exams were over.
Three students of BA Economics (Hons) scored 99 per cent in the first semester. Around 390 answer scripts in Economics theory papers were awarded perfect 75. The trend of over 90 per cent marks continued in subjects like BA(Hons) Urdu, Philosophy and Hindi.
Gaur said in Satyawati College, 37 students got first class in Political Science.
“The University’s records in the past years show that never did so many students from one college get first class in one subject. That number of first classes to used to be total reported in the entire University in one subject,” the teacher added.
More shocking for the teachers was the free flow of marks in social science subjects, usually hard to score.
“In Hindu College, the highest marks in political science is over 80 per cent. Similar trends are seen in History (H),” said Irsh Mishra, professor of political science in Hindu College.
According to Abha Dev Habib, Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) member and physics teacher at Miranda House college, students who could not even write a letter in correct English were given over 90 per cent. “My own students are laughing. Many students who did not do well got such inflated marks,” Habib said.
To pass all the students, more than 10 marks were increased after the evaluated mark sheets went to the controller of examination.
“Though the University has a right to moderate marks to pass the student after the examiner has marked the papers, the varsity went overboard. I did not give such high marks, but when the result came out there was a high disparity in the marks given by teachers and the marks out,” said Ujjaini Ray, Professor of History in Lady Sriram College (LSR).
She said many are unable to believe the teachers did not give such high marks and suggested filing RTI to get the OMR sheets where it is impossible to change the marks given by the teachers.
“The second and third year students are unhappy because the employer will not ask them why they got 50 or 60 per cent marks when their juniors are scoring in 90’s,”Ray added.
Teachers say stricter evaluation is to make students decide if they would like to continue in a subject.
“This is the death of a university. A degree from DU won’t be of any value if marks are awarded like this. People will stop taking us seriously,”Habib said.
The office of Controller of Examinations, D S Jaggi refused to comment when contacted.
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