Delhi University's faculty members are having a tough time evaluating the answer sheets of School of Open Learning (SOL) students since many of them have poured their hearts out on the copies. From blaming the university authorities for conducting exams in the scorching heat, which had affected their performance, to discussing their love lives, students have put down everything but answers to the questions.

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"Dear Vice-Chancellor Sir, please don't conduct the examination in this scorching heat as it makes us feel lazy and hampers our performance," wrote a third-year BA (H) students in the political science answer sheet.

Similarly, another third-year student narrated her personal problems while responding to a serious geopolitical question. "Sir/Ma'am, I like a boy who lives near my place and wants to marry me. If you won't pass me in the examination I will not be able to marry him. Please help me," she requested.

SOL is a correspondence option offered by Delhi University. It admits around 1.5 lakh students in undergraduate courses every year and offers BA, BCom, BA (Honours) Political Science, BCom (Honours) and BA (Honours) English, with the BA programme being one of the most popular choices. According to teachers, evaluation of such answer sheets has become a task for them. "How would you feel if you are checking an answer copy and suddenly the student starts narrating his or her love life and family problems instead of answering the given question?" asked a political science professor at DU.

Echoing the sentiment, another professor said a student wrote an interesting answer in response to a simple question 'define state'. "Bharat — the Sone Ki Chidiya — is our state and Narendra Modi is our state head. It will prosper only if he continues to remain in power."

And it is not limited to SOL students. Several teachers also complain of finding such answers in the copies of regular students. "I was shocked when I came across an answer sheet full of abusive words while evaluating the copies of third-year History Honours students," said a History professor.

Rajesh Jha, a professor at Rajdhani College, said: "Such instances show the failure of our education system. There is a huge gap between the patterns of our school and college education. While we teach students to write precise answers in schools, the college pattern of writing lengthy answers eventually leads them to write anything just to fill the sheets."

KNOT HAPPY

  • “Sir/Ma’am, I like a boy who lives near my place and wants to marry me. If you won’t pass me in the examination I will not be able to marry him. Please help me,” wrote one School of Open Learning student in her answer sheet.