In its second faux pas during the ongoing exam season, Delhi University on Tuesday distributed an out-of-syllabus question paper to students taking an optional exam in Hindi.
Some 700 undergraduate students studying in the third semester sat for the exam, which has now been cancelled.
“When students complained, we thought that the syllabus was not properly taught by the teacher concerned. But after we consulted the teacher, we found that the questions were not in congruence with the syllabus,” said a teacher on invigilation duty at Maharaja Agrasen College, who did not want to be named.
After the students’ concerns were raised with the officer on special duty for examinations at DU, the teacher said the varsity decided to cancel the paper in Hindi under the `allied' list of subjects.
Students in some colleges refused to take the test when served with the `wrong' question paper. Instead, they gave an `undertaking' that the questions asked were not from their syllabus.
DU sources said that many colleges offering the allied paper in Hindi complained about the syllabus mismatch, claiming that it was of BA (Hons) Hindi standard. They suggested that it was a mistake on the part of the DU’s Hindi Department, responsible for setting the question papers.
Admitting that his department made an error, the head of Hindi Department, Hari Mohan Sharma, said that the university will notify the date of re-examination on its website.
To find out how the error crept in, he said the department held a meeting with teachers who set question papers. The department reportedly prepares 150 sets of question papers every semester.
University sources said the re-examination will most likely be conducted on Friday.
Last week, there was a reported case of repetition of a question paper. The university ended up asking the same questions to BCom (Hons) students as it did to School of Open Learning in May 2014.