Confused repeaters turn up for wrong exam

Confusion reigned at a few centres on Tuesday just before a re-examination of third-year BCom’s (distance education) business economics-III. A total of 612 candidates were set to appear at 19 examination centres across Mumbai. But, the plan began to go awry when a number of repeater students from the regular stream, too, turned up — even at centres that weren’t conducting the examination. 

Repeater candidates had cried foul on March 27 when they were given a question paper based on a new syllabus and had demanded a re-examination.

One such student who arrived at the Rizvi College at Bandra told DNA, “The university announced a re-examination of business economics-III at the same centres where it had been conducted the first time. We assumed that repeaters will also be allowed to sit the re-examination. “

Since Rizvi College is not a centre for distance education, it did not conduct the re-examination. Principal Dr M Farooqui said, “Many repeater students from the regular stream turned up on Tuesday. They were agitated on March 27 as well when they got an examination paper based on the new syllabus. When we checked with the university, we were told that the students had exhausted their attempts based on the old syllabus.”

University officials said, “We had made it very clear when announcing a re-examination (of business economics-III) that it was only for 612 distance education students.”

One repeater candidate, who arrived at his examination centre at Agrawal Mahavidyalay, Kalyan, was also asked to return.

A re-examination of the March 27 paper was announced since a centre — VPM College at Mulund — didn’t receive a faxed copy of the question paper that day. Question papers were faxed to all examination centres after the university forgot to have them printed.

Of the 612 students, 135 sat the re-examination. Those who failed to turn up will be assessed on their attempt on March 27.