350 of 680 students, who appeared for the sociology first year exam through distance learning, were marked failed
Students protest outside theInstituteofDistanceand Open Learning office in Kalina
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Hundreds of anxious correspondence students, who failed the Sociology examination in the Masters of Arts course of University of Mumbai, stormed the Institute of Distance and Open Learning's (IDOL) office in Kalina yesterday, to protest the alleged gaffe.
The students had claimed that MU had summarily flunked them in the first year Sociology examination. Around 350 of the 680 students, who appeared for the first year exam, through the University's distance learning programme, had been marked failed.
Shaheena Usmani, who was expecting a 60-plus score in the examination, and got a zero in the Theoretical Perspective paper, was among the many students protesting outside the IDOL office. However, instead of addressing their complaints, the staff, after accepting their complaint letter, re-directed them to the examination section for clarity.
"I had prepared well for the examination and was planning to appear for NET. The University cannot ask us to apply for re-evaluation, when it is clearly their mistake. How can they give us a zero in the papers?" asked Usmani.
Another student, Janki Swarankar, said, "When we went to speak about the issue, the staff seemed least interested in hearing us out."
When contacted, PRO for IDOL, Vinod Malale, said, "All students have been directed to the examination section as assessment was conducted there and they are the authorities who can resolve students' issues."
PRO of Mumbai University, Deputy Registrar Leeladhar Bansod, said, "There were total 687 candidates, of which 361 have failed. The important thing to notice here is that 225 candidates were absent in this examination. A total 72 students have scored zero.
The university will identify the error because of which students got zero marks and it will be rectified."
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