Delhi University B.Com examination paper
an exact copy of earlier test
an exact copy of earlier test
NEW DELHI: The
credibility of Delhi University's examination system took a hard knock on
Thursday when the question paper on financial management for fifth semester
BCom students turned out to be an exact copy of the paper the varsity's School
of Open Learning students had got for their annual exam in May-June this year.
It's not clear how the
goof-up happened. J P Sharma, head of DU commerce department, said question
papers were set by a board of three teachers. He said the names of names of the
board members were not "readily available" with him.
"We are not privy
to the papers. We set the board of teachers based on seniority lists from
colleges and they prepare the paper. There's a moderation done thereafter, also
by college teachers, to do away with errors," said Sharma.
However, all checks
and balances seemed to have collapsed as Thursday's question paper was a
facsimile of the earlier exam paper, with even the sequence of questions
unchanged. In fact, solved versions of the paper had been printed in 'question
bank' booklets, such as the Shiva Delhi University Series, readily available at
bookstores.
Students preparing for
exams. "A student came to me after the exam and said they have studied the
exact paper with solutions in a 'kunji'. I cross checked and found the paper to
be a direct lift," said a commerce teacher at Kirori Mal College.
Thursday's fifth
semester BCom (Hons) paper on financial management carried the 'unique paper
code', 241502. However, there was nothing unique about it, as it was lifted
straight from the SOL annual exam paper earlier this year.
Despite repeated
attempts, Rup Lal, DU's dean of the examinations, could not be contacted.
This is probably a
dubious first for the DU, as far as exam papers are concerned. The varsity
administration was earlier found to have lifted material from other sources. In
September 2011, TOI first reported how in the proposal paper for establishing
the cluster innovation centre placed at the special academic council and
executive council meetings, the introduction of the course which the centre was
to run had been lifted from websites of foreign universities.
Thursday's goof-up
took place despite the system of question paper-setting being reformed a few
years ago. Till 2011, the task of setting question papers was given to
individual teachers. The exam branch used to get multiple sets of question
papers from the teacher concerned, and selected one for the exam. In 2012, the
process was decentralized and the task given to varsity departments to make the
process more broad-based.
According to Kavita
Sharma, the convener of examinations at the commerce department, a board of
three teachers is constituted for every paper. "The teachers are drafted
on the basis of seniority lists sent by each college. This board is supposed to
meet and decide how they are going to draft the paper/s. This process is completely
within their ambit," she said.
Sharma said a convener
is also appointed among the three teachers, again based on seniority. "The
convener is also the head examiner of that paper. Once this board submits the
paper, we get it moderated. The task of the moderators is to check for
grammatical errors, repetition of questions, whether the questions are clear in
terms of language etc. Nowhere in the process of moderation is the source of
the questions looked into," she said.
"Then we sent the multiple sets of papers (in this case three papers were sent) to the university's examination branch which decides which one to print. Apart from being the facilitator, the department has no other role," she added.
"Then we sent the multiple sets of papers (in this case three papers were sent) to the university's examination branch which decides which one to print. Apart from being the facilitator, the department has no other role," she added.
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