Ranchi, April 28: The English Honours students of the Ranchi University are in a piquant situation. While most of the colleges fail to cover the entire syllabus, bulk of the guidebooks available in the market are misleading.

The “golden passports” in the campus lingo turn out to be “short cut to failure” because of innumerable textual, factual and grammatical bloomers. While answers in these books are misguiding, the questions make a mockery of English language.

Sample a few questions from one such book: “write a critical apprehensive approach of Shakespeare”, or “with a view to analyse the sonnet of William Shakespeare”, or “pass out comment with a judgement to the sonnet of William Shakespeare”!

While it’s extremely difficult for students to fathom such questions, worse are the answers. They reveal that the “learned professor” (the brain behind the book) is ignorant about English literature.

Despite full of bloomers, these guidebooks come for a premium. The one under scrutiny is priced at Rs 60.

“Even though expensive and full of errors, students who do not attend classes regularly and seek to get through the examination take help of these books,” lamented Prof. S. Singh of Ranchi College.

Truant students are not the only victims. Several serious students are left with no other option but bank on these books, as classes are not regularly held in several colleges.

“Many students become helpless victims because a major part of the syllabus is not covered in some colleges due to staff shortage. They cannot afford the cost of private tuition and are left with no choice but to depend on such passports,” said a teacher.

Nisha Shree, a student of Marwari College, echoed the teacher: “I had to take help of such a book once because the prescribed syllabus was not completed. I could not afford private tuition.”

The marketing strategy of the publishers of such books is equally disturbing. They send agents to the colleges to convince teachers to recommend the “passport” to the students of English (Hons).

An agent of the book under lens had visited a college in the state capital recently. He insisted that the “passport” was written by an eminent teacher of English from Patna but refused to name the teacher. When a teacher pointed out the mistakes, the agent hastily said: “We are withdrawing this book from the market and I have come to look for someone who can do this job more competently.”

Prof. S.K. Choudhary, the head of the postgraduate department of English, Ranchi University, said: “No student should be allowed to use such golden passports. As teachers, we do not recommend such books. What is worrying is that students do not have the ability and judgement. Hence, many of them get lured by such books.”