Karnataka PU board passes big test, chemistry re-exam goes smoothly

Bengaluru: It’s the summer of discontent for the PU Board. It managed to conduct the re-exam of the IInd PUC chemistry paper without another shocking leak. But there is no breakthrough yet in the talks with PU lecturers, who have resorted to a valuation boycott for their demands since April 5.

“The re-exam went off smoothly with no problem or leak reported,” said Mr Ramegowda, PU Board director. Meanwhile, there are grace marks coming the way of students who complained of a tough PU mathematics question paper. They may get 10-16 grace marks, said an officer.

To the relief of students appearing for the II PUC Chemistry re- examination on Tuesday- the third in less than a month - it went off without a hitch. Even better, most found the question paper easy. Some students, however, did miss a competitive test for a professional course to do the re-exam.

Making sure there was no leaking of the question paper this time, the government had made foolproof arrangements starting with a team of officials from various departments checking into district treasuries and collecting the question paper bundles at 6.25 am across the state.

They were later transported to all 925 examination centres under armed police protection and the whole process was videographed even as senior officials of the PU board monitored every step from their office in Malleswaram right up to the start of the examination at 9 am.

Helping the PU board conduct the examination were senior officials of the revenue, commercial tax, health and medical education departments.

Students, who were expectedly apprehensive at having to re-appear for the examination a third time, were relieved on receiving the question paper, which was both easy and for the large part free of errors. In fact, a student of Deeksha Network, Dhanush S Bhargav found the paper easier than the last one.

“There were no errors as such in the questions except for a few spelling errors,” he said. But Dhanush was disappointed he couldn’t appear for the VIT admission test as a result of the rescheduled PU Chemistry examination.

Another student, Ramya R Kotiyan too found the question paper easier than the last. “We were expecting a difficult paper as it had been leaked twice. But it was in line with the blueprint and there were no errors. I had just revised important questions and gone through the handbook. I'm now focusing on preparing for the coming CET and COMED-K tests,” she said.

Chemistry Professor at BASE , Sasirekha too could only find two typographical errors in Tuesday’s question paper. Meanwhile, the fifth round of talks between the state government and the agitating PU lecturers failed on Tuesday with the government remaining firm on not implementing the Kumar Naik report. Although it offered to increase their perks and facilities, the lecturers wanted nothing less than a hike in their salaries.

Primary and secondary education minister, Kimmane Rathnakar said the government was keen on completing the valuation by April 30 come what may.

“We may bring in 12,000 lecturers of unaided PU colleges to do the valuation but we will wait and see if the PU lecturers begin valuation work from Wednesday. We could also impose ESMA against them. But it all depends on what happens tomorrow, " he added.