Karnataka PU exam Day 1: Confusion over hall tickets

Bengaluru: Students, who  appeared for the II PU final examination that began on Thursday, had no complaints as most found the biology and history question papers easy. But the day was marred by tension over  hall tickets with several students, who failed to get them due to  confusion over  their attendance, gathering before the Sheshadripuram College in protest. The police had to rush to the spot to disperse them.

Also five incidents of malpractice were reported from Kalaburagi and Davanagere districts and a few lecturers attended examination duty wearing black bands at the city’s Vivekananda College examination centre  to protest the government’s delay in meeting the demands of their association.  

But the examinations were otherwise incident-free in Bengaluru. Ms. Namitha, a student, who appeared for the biology examination at the Malleswaram Government PU College, found the question paper easier than even the preparatory one. "A couple of questions were tough. But I felt it was very easy when compared to the preparatory examination," she said.

Last minute preparations by students of a PU College in Sheshadripuram. (Photo: DC)

The head of the biology department at BASE, Hanumanthacharya said the question paper covered all chapters, giving due importance to the prescribed syllabus. “It did not have ambiguous or  wrong questions.   A prepared student should have been able to answer it in the stipulated time without  difficulty. Overall, it appears to be a good  paper, in which an average student could score  about 70 per cent marks," he said.

Director of the state pre-university education department, Ms. Shikha C ,  who visited several examination centers in the city along with Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Tanvir Sait, later told reporters that  day one of the examination went off smoothly  despite the students being allotted examination centers based on randamisation.

As for the confusion over hall tickets, she said students, who did not have the mandatory 75 per cent attendance were not issued them . Meanwhile,  as a precaution against malpractice, PU department officials closed down several Xerox units within a 200 meter radius of the examination centres.

PU officials smell corruption
Several officials of the PU department believe colleges should not be allowed to issue hall tickets to students as this almost always leads to  corruption. "The PU department releases the hall tickets for all the students and the colleges are given the responsibility of denying the tickets to those who have less than 75 per cent attendance. But this gives the managements licence to make money,” alleged an officer

CBSE board exams held without hassle
The final CBSE examinations for Classes X and XII, which began on Thursday, went off without a hitch.

 According to CBSE Chennai region officials, the examinations were conducted smoothly all over Karnataka. "Everything went off well. There was no confusion,” said an officer.