An estimated 50,000 students of graduation (BA and BSc) classes taking up General Punjabi examination of the fifth semester of the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) on Tuesday were taken aback when they saw an altogether different question paper in front of them.
Instead of the General Punjabi, the Functional Punjabi question paper was distributed among the students across examination centres under GNDU jurisdiction in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahar districts.
The number of students appearing for the exam was high, because General Punjabi is a compulsory subject for all graduation-level GNDU students, while Functional Punjabi is optional having far lesser students.
“Yes, it was a blunder and no excuses can be given for it,” GNDU registrar Prof Sharanjit Singh Dhillon told Hindustan Times.
The blunder, which seemed to have been committed by the (exam) conduct branch of the university, took both the students as well as staff on examination duty by surprise.
As the news spread from one exam centre to another like wildfire, students at various centres walked out of the exam, leaving no option with the university but to cancel the General Punjabi paper.
“The examination of the paper Punjabi Compulsory of BA/BSc fifth semester held in the evening session has been cancelled due to some administrative reason,” stated Renu Bhardwaj, professor in charge, examination.
{{/usCountry}}“The examination of the paper Punjabi Compulsory of BA/BSc fifth semester held in the evening session has been cancelled due to some administrative reason,” stated Renu Bhardwaj, professor in charge, examination.
{{/usCountry}}The paper would now be held on December 14, a GNDU release stated.