The Patna University syndicate on Tuesday okayed for re-conducting the entrance examination for the Master in Education (MEd) course. The special syndicate meeting, which was chaired by vice-chancellor Y.C. Simhadri, okayed the MEd retest because during evaluation of the answer papers, it was discovered that only six students have cleared the entrance test.

The MEd course has 50 seats, and the varsity has not declared the results of the first entrance test conducted on July 25.

The re-test will be conducted for 44 seats, varsity sources said. Those six students who have cleared the examination will not be affected.

The syndicate also decided to constitute a two-member committee that will probe the reasons behind the tough question paper set for the MEd entrance test.

"The basic purpose of the MEd entrance test was to select candidates, but as the questions were very tough many candidates failed to clear the test," a syndicate member said on condition of anonymity.

A proposal to abolish negative marking in the MEd entrance test was raised at the meeting but it was not accepted because of opposition from syndicate member Sudhakar Singh.

The MEd course is one of the most sought after courses of Patna University; more than 3,000 students had appeared for the test.

The syndicate meeting also gave its nod for the suspension of English department teacher Shiv Jatan Thakur.

On July 10, the vice-chancellor had put Thakur under suspension after the professor wrote a letter to the governor - who is the chancellor - seeking action against security guards posted at the VC's residence for allegedly denying him (Thakur) entry to a meeting on July 9.

Governor Ram Nath Kovind had last week heard Thakur's appeal challenging the suspension.