BENGALURU: The surprise overscoring of marks by students of Bangalore University (BU), which left many outraged, was sought to be explained away by the University’s evaluation registrar Dr J T Devaraju as “oversight” on the part of the students and board of examiners (BOE).
According to the registrar, after syllabus change in 2016, papers were to be marked out of 100, instead of 70. To accommodate students before 2016, the BOE had formulated a common paper for students who were to be marked out of 100, and those to be marked out of 70. The question had five sections, and students who were to be marked out of 70 had been instructed to attempt three of the sections.
However, a few had attempted all five sections, leading to the error. “I’ve looked into the records and found that only around 10 students made the mistake of attempting all five sections, though they were clearly instructed to attempt three. It’s a minor issue that could have been solved easily, but the students opted to go to the media instead of notifying the university,” said Dr Devaraju.
Though it was reported that students had got over 100 marks, it was physically impossible since the digital evaluation system was capped at 100 marks, he said. “It’s understandable that the system would award more than 70 as some had attempted more sections, but going over 100 is impossible,” he said.
The issue also came about partly due to a change in the system of valuators. “Previously, we used to outsource manual evaluation to private firms, but as of last year, we’ve switched to digital evaluation. The system is still in its infancy, and there are bound to be some hiccups, we need students to understand and cooperate,” he told TNIE.
The digital valuation system was not able to detect when students had attempted for more than 70 marks, as a result of the common question paper. He said the switch was both as a result of preventing malpractice and corruption in the valuation process by digitising it. Dr Devaraju has said that the problem has been rectified and the student’s scores will be republished on Thursday.