More than 260 students in the Sanskrit department at Jadavpur University boycotted their classes all day on Wednesday and threatened to continue the boycott unless the university fixes the marking system followed by one of their teachers.
The students complained that in a class of 60 students in MA Part I, more than 40 students failed the court IV exam, which deals with Sanskrit poetry.
“Sanskrit poetry is not tough. In fact, the students like it very much, but traditionally most students fail in this course. teacher evaluates our answer scripts, the marks come down and many fail. We are sure when other teachers evaluate the answer scripts we would get marks,” said one undergraduate student. The 50 mark court IV exam includes 20 marks allotted for internal examinations, while the remainder are reserved for the semester exam. “While all the MA first year students have got very good marks in the other papers, it’s just course IV that creates the trouble. While people scored between 12 and 18 marks on the 20 internal marks, they still failed miserably on the whole. This could only happen if two teachers were evaluating these scripts,” said an MA Part I student.
“The moment this teacher of ours evaluated the 30 mark course IV semester paper, most students failed,” he added.
“Last year I got three marks in this paper and this year, too, in the supplementary exam I was allotted three marks. How can this happen,” said Netai Chandra Bashak, a second year MA Sanskrit student.
The students have submitted a deputation with the vice chancellor.
“It is not unusual. We are working on it,” said professor Souvik Bhattacharya, vice chancellor of the university.
“The moment this teacher of ours evaluated the 30 mark course IV semester paper, most students failed,” he added.
“Last year I got three marks in this paper and this year, too, in the supplementary exam I was allotted three marks. How can this happen,” said Netai Chandra Bashak, a second year MA Sanskrit student.
The students have submitted a deputation with the vice chancellor.
“It is not unusual. We are working on it,” said professor Souvik Bhattacharya, vice chancellor of the university.