The Gour Banga University (GBU) has cancelled a paper of the undergraduate (UG) third-semester political science examination after it was discovered that the wrong set of questions had been printed, causing inconvenience to examinees.
The decision was taken on Friday at an emergency meeting convened under the direction of vice-chancellor Ashis Bhattacharjee. However, a section of professors and members of the university’s executive council (EC) have expressed dissatisfaction with the move, claiming the decision was taken without constituting a proper fact-finding committee.
The incident occurred on March 12 when more than 100 UG students, appearing under the old syllabus of the National Education Policy (NEP), were scheduled to write the political science third-semester paper titled “Modern Indian Political Thought”.
Instead, they were given a question paper meant for another subject, “Comparative Politics”.
Soon after the examination began, several students noticed the discrepancy and alerted the invigilators. The matter was immediately reported to the university’s controller of examinations.
According to a source from Malda College, an urgent telephonic meeting of the board of studies members was convened following the incident.
“The students were subsequently provided with an alternative question paper. However, while the original paper carried 40 marks, the alternative paper was set for 50 marks. Students were instructed to attempt questions worth 40 marks and were also given additional time to complete the examination,” the source said.
To review the matter, the university authorities convened another meeting on March 13. The meeting was attended by the registrar (holding additional charge), the dean of humanities and social sciences, the controller of examinations and his deputy, along with the chairman of the UG board of studies. The meeting was chaired by the VC.
Following discussions, the university resolved to cancel the examination of the political science paper for the third semester. “The examination of the paper concerned has been cancelled. The new date will be announced shortly,” the VC said.
In addition, the university replaced Siddhartha Sankar Manna, coordinator of the postgraduate political science department and ex officio chairman of the UG board of studies, with Badal Sarkar, an associate professor in the same department.
According to Bhattacharjee, Manna acknowledged the error. However, attempts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful as he neither answered phone calls nor responded to text messages.
The decision to remove Manna has drawn criticism from some faculty members.
Sanatan Das, a professor in the postgraduate Mathematics department and an EC member, said the action was taken without following due procedure.
“The removal of Manna without forming a fact-finding committee is yet another authoritative decision that does not follow the statutes of the university,” Das said.
A college teacher who was part of the question paper moderation team said it would be unfair to hold a single individual responsible.
“The syllabus frequently undergoes changes, and such errors could also occur at the printing press where the question papers are produced,” the teacher said.