Thiruvananthapuram, March 29 (IANS) Around 71 MBA students who studied at Kerala University during the period 2022-24 and were waiting for their final results got a shock when they were asked to reappear for an examination which they had already written on May 31, 2024.

When these students were in their third semester, they had appeared for the subject, Project Finance examination conducted by the Kerala University on May 31, 2024.

On getting the notification from the university, the students said they were shocked by what has happened.

“We had been worried that something was wrong as for a long time we have been regularly enquiring about the delay in publishing of the 3rd semester results.

“We wrote the 4th semester final exams and even as we were waiting for the final results, we have been told that we need to appear again for a new examination in the subject Project Finance,” said the angry students.

Incidentally, it was on Friday that the news surfaced that the reason why they have been asked to write the exam again is because a college teacher entrusted with the job of evaluating the 71 answer sheets had lost them.

The teacher had registered a police complaint at his hometown in Palakkad and also intimated Kerala University that the answer sheets went missing when he was taking them on his two-wheeler.

“This is shocking news and exposes the callous manner in which answer sheets are being handled. We want to know why no action has been taken against this teacher who has literally ruined our future.

“How is it possible to write an examination at short notice on a subject we studied 10 months ago? The Kerala University has to ensure we get justice as we are being penalised for no fault of ours,” said another distraught student.

Meanwhile the Kerala University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Mohan Kunnummal, has called an urgent meeting on Tuesday of officials handling this section in the Kerala University.

R.S. Sasikumar a retired Kerala University employee said till recently answer sheet valuation was done at centralised valuation camps where teachers used to sit together and do the valuation. “But, very recently that was discontinued and now teachers can sit at their homes and do the valuation,” Sasikumar said.

“University officials failed to act on time and hence there is serious erosion of credibility. Universities are now being politicised. A way out of this impasse is that the university can give average marks based on past performance of each student for this particular subject and the results should be published immediately,” said Sasikumar.

–IANS

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