DU bungles on Hindi question paper, re-examination on Dec 5

New Delhi, Dec 4: After a goof up over the questions for a B.Com examination, Delhi University has bungled on the paper for a Hindi test, which was rescheduled even as varsity authorities came under a strong attack from its teachers over such repeated errors. Admitting that "the students were distributed a wrong question paper" in the optional Hindi course, the head of DU's Hindi Department Prof Hari Mohan Sharma said, "How did the goof up take place, we will probe the matter".

"We accept the fault at our end and the examination has been rescheduled for December 5," he added. Around 700 undergraduate students had yesterday appeared for the third semester Hindi allied exam on 'Adhunik Kavita'. [DU to send teachers abroad for Masters courses]

"The students complained that the questions were not from their syllabus but from that of the (now scrapped) Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), following which information was sent to the varsity's examination department, which decided to cancel the paper," he said.

"We set around 150 question papers per semester and they are carefully examined by a committee of teachers. It is unfortunate that such a goof up happened," Sharma said.

The case of the wrong Hindi questions was the second goof up over examination papers reported in DU in the past 10 days. Last week, the financial management paper for B.Com (Hons) had turned out to be an exact copy of the paper set by the School of Open Learning for an examination last year.

DU has constituted a three-member committee to probe the bungling over the B.Com question paper and the report is supposed to be submitted with the Vice Chancellor within two weeks.

Meanwhile, DU Teachers' Association (DUTA) President Nandita Narain has attacked the varsity's authorities saying that such errors occur as the question papers are prepared at the last moment.

"The question paper committees are constituted at the eleventh hour before the start of the examinations and so are the question papers. No reasonable time is invested in the moderation of question papers. Hence, the replication of questions or the formulation of 'out-of-syllabus' questions is rapidly becoming frequent," she said. DU's Dean of Examinations, Roop Lal, could not be reached for his comments regarding the matter.

PTI