HYDERABAD: A week after a minor fire engulfed parts of the examination department, the Osmania University has decided to re-conduct BSc examination in some subjects in the last week of June.The decision is based on the recommendations of the committee which inquired into the matter. A revised time table will be circulated shortly to the colleges and will also be displayed on the university’s website.The inquiry report, released on Tuesday, revealed that 9 per cent of around 87,000 answer-scripts, both regular and backlog examinations which were kept in the coding room were damaged. The rest of the answer papers were partially damaged in the fire.
Old hall tickets valid for fresh exams: OU
A week after answer sheets were gutted in a fire that broke out in the OU examination department, vice chancellor Prof S Ramachandram said that re-examination would be conducted in four subjects for backlog and regular students of the second semester. They will also be held for regular students of the fourth semester and backlog students of first and third semesters.
“The exams will be held for BSc students in Zoology, Botany, Physics and Mathematics. All recommendations made by committee after the probe will soon be implemented,” said the VC.
The coding room had the BSc answer-scripts of affiliated and constituent colleges. The varsity conducts exams every year in over 1,000 subjects for about 16 lakh students. The process involves confidential work of coding, evaluation, and tabulation. Further, it has suggested an overhaul of infrastructure, safety and security measures at the spot evaluation centre to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. The university is also planning to switch over to online evaluation in a phased manner, said the report.
The fire broke out in the early hours of June 5 and was caused by a spark from an electric meter box, according to inquiry conducted by fire department. The committee, which was constituted to look into the cause of fire, revealed in its report that the damage was partially due to fire and more due to water used to douse it by the staff.
To ensure that students maintain continuity in academics, the committee recommended that the exams be re-conducted and all students, except those booked for malpractices, be asked to reappear. But they need not pay any examination fee and can take the exam at the same centre with the same hall-ticket issued earlier. The varsity appealed to students not to believe rumors. It assured that the varsity would take necessary steps so that the students do not face any problem.
Suggestions of panel
New building for counting and coding work
Replace conventional coding system with a bar coding system
Deploy qualified technical personnel to man the centre