Students from aided college miss exam; academicians allege negligence by PU, college, seek re-exam

Twenty-eight students from a government-aided college missed the exam for a paper allegedly owing to the negligence of Periyar University and the college. The students were unaware of the paper in their curriculum and, as such, failed to pay fee for the exam. The students and academicians are now demanding a re-exam for the paper.

The fourth-semester exams of B.A. English were held at all colleges affiliated to Periyar University in May.

Students from Salem Sowdeswari College (government-aided) were supposed to appear for eight papers, including one on ‘English for Business’. The students, however, did not know that they had such a paper. As such, they registered for seven papers, got the hall tickets for the exams for seven papers and appeared for them.

It was only in June that they learnt, through students from self-financing institutions, that they had missed a paper. Subsequently, they approached the college administration, which allegedly asked them to appear for the paper in the fifth semester as an arrear paper.

The students, however, sent a complaint, dated June 25, to the Chief Minister Office. Following this, the Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education (RJD) sent a letter to the college on June 30, seeking an explanation, according to sources.

Association of University Teachers (AUT-Tamil Nadu) general secretary K. Raja said that except for the Naan Mudhalvan qualifying paper, an exam fee of ₹100 had been set for each paper, including the SEC paper (English for Business).

All the 28 students, however, were unaware of the paper as they had never been informed about it by the department of English at the college, which also failed to allot the mandatory two hours of instruction per week for the course. Consequently, the students neither attended classes nor paid the prescribed exam fee for the paper.

The principal (in-charge) of the college also failed to notice that no workload had been allotted for the course, and the college office failed to detect that the students had not paid the exam fee for the paper (₹100). Despite these serious lapses, hall tickets were issued to all the students, leading them to reasonably believe that they had fulfilled all the exam requirements.

The Office of the Controller of Examinations (CoE-Periyar University) also failed to detect the omission. Had there been a proper system to check the required exam papers for each programme and semester, the fact that all the 28 students had not paid their exam fees for the SEC-7 paper would have been noticed right away, allowing for quick action before the exams began, Mr. Raja said.

The AUT demanded that the Periyar University Vice-Chancellor Committee Convenor direct CoE K. Murugesan to conduct a special exam for the 28 students. Last year, when a similar case happened at government arts colleges in Dharmapuri and Namakkal, the university conducted a special exam, he recalled.

Salem Sowdeswari College principal (in-charge) T. Poongodi told The Hindu that memos were issued to the English Department staff responsible for this issue. Periyar University CoE assured that the students would be allowed to appear for the paper (English for Business) in the fifth semester as an additional paper, not as an arrear paper.

The faculty members were instructed to complete the paper syllabus by working additional hours. An oral explanation was given to the RJD in this regard, and soon a report would be sent. “We have convinced the students to appear for the exam in the fifth semester,” Ms. Poongodi added.

Periyar University CoE was unavailable for comments.