An investigation into two teachers’ suspected involvement in irregular grading practices led to a scandal at Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh’s Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University. According to NDTV, these professors allegedly gave scores to first-year DPharm students for answers that included “Jai Shree Ram,” cricketers’ names, song lyrics and other extraneous content.
A Right to Information (RTI) request by student leaders Uddeshya and Divyanshu Singh, who claimed that the teachers had taken bribes from students in exchange for good grades, brought the topic to light. They explicitly asked to re-evaluate about eighteen DPharma students’ examination answer sheets.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Governor, and Vice Chancellor, Divyanshu Singh claimed that professors and university administrators had colluded. Singh asserted that even students who received a zero marked as passed with an overall score of more than 60 per cent.
Following an RTI inquiry, anomalies were discovered during the assessment of individual answer sheets, resulting in considerable discrepancies in marks following re-evaluation. The Vice-Chancellor of the University was contacted by the Raj Bhavan in response, requesting prompt action on the issue.
Vice-Chancellor Vandana Singh said, “There was an allegation that students have been given more marks,” as reported by NDTV. Thus, a committee was established. The Committee stated in its report that extra marks had been given to students. This demonstrates how seriously the university is taking the accusations of wrongdoing.
Upon obtaining the answer sheet, NDTV reported that there are times when the phrase “Jai Shri Ram” is added into an answer that talks about “pharmacy as a career.” Cricketers’ names, including Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma, appear in the same answer.
The examiners implicated, Dr. Vinay Verma and Manish Gupta, were suspended during the examination committee meeting on Wednesday.
In the meantime, a video of a student attempting to bribe the teacher evaluating the answer sheets surfaced online last week. A message written by the student in the answer sheet that says, “My copy has been given to Guru, if he wishes then I will pass,” is shown by the teacher in the video. The teacher then proceeds to show a Rs. 200 note that has been deceptively placed where the sheet is tied. And just before the end of the video, the teacher marks the answer sheet with zero.
Source: India Today