VISAKHAPATNAM: Just three days after the degree question papers were leaked at one of its affiliated colleges, the Andhra University authorities were in for another jolt on Saturday when its B Com final year Telugu medium students got the question papers in English medium.
Around 6,000 students who were writing their Business Laws paper at 75 affiliated colleges of the AU were at the end of their wits’ end when they got the question papers.
As a practice, question papers meant for the Telugu medium students have the questions written in English followed by its Telugu translation, making it easy for the students writing their answers in Telugu.
But, to the surprise of the students, the Telugu translation of the questions were missing. And the students who have been taught, instructed and studied the subject in Telugu all these years, found it a Herculean Task to answer the questions.
“Though we could vaguely understand the questions, it was difficult to comprehend those fully so that we could write the precise answers. Especially, the terminologies. We are attuned to the subject in Telugu. But, writing answers to these questions amid the exam tensions was very difficult. Further, the full marks was mentioned in the question as 70 in stead of 100. There was so much of confusion,” rued Teja, a student, after writing the exam.
A hullabaloo was ensued in the exam halls, when the students sought help of the invigilators to make them understand the questions.
But, the latter were hesitant to help out the students before the issue was brought to the notice of the authorities.
Then with the permission of the AU higher-ups, finally the invigilator helped the students translate the questions in Telugu.
Beyond this, the AU authorities expressed their helplessness.
“Given the confidentiality, we do not open the sealed question papers till the exam time. So, we had no scope to check the mistakes. Considering the students’ plight, we asked the invigilators and lectures at the centres to translate the questions for the students,” said AU registrar V Uma Maheswara Rao.
Asked as to how it could have happened, Rao said that there might be a mistake with those, who had set the questions or with the printer.
“We are yet to ascertain the root cause of the problem,” said the registrar, clarifying that the full marks of the paper was 100, not 70 as it was printed on the question paper.