BCom 4th sem exam fiasco: Moderation committee comes under scanner

Nagpur: The Nagpur University (NU) is set to form an inquiry committee to investigate the blunder that resulted in wrong question papers for a BCom fourth semester exam getting delivered to centres on June 4. "The committee will investigate the cause and place its findings before the board of examinations," said a top official.Terming the blunder as ‘grave', academicians said that this was perhaps the first incident of a NU exam being called off midway.NU officials said the subject examination committee, also known as the moderation committee, is under scanner in this case. "Prima facie, it appears the paper skipped the check mechanism of the moderation committee," they said.The moderation committee is headed by the chairman of the Board of Studies (BoS). The committee comprises two more members of BoS, apart from co-opted members.On Thursday last week, over 950 BCom fourth semester students were baffled after they received a wrong question paper during their Fundamentals of Insurance exam. The paper contained questions from Fundamentals of Banking, a third semester subject. This led to an uproar across exam centres, and NU was forced to cancel the exam midway. The NU later announced a re-exam of the same paper on June 10.Initially, NU officials put the blame on paper setters. "The questions are submitted manually by the setter in an envelope. The moderation committee must ensure there are no errors in the question paper and that everything is according to the syllabus and subject scheme. Once the committee approves, the question paper sets are submitted for printing. Such errors don't happen at the printing stage," officials said. NU officials also suspect that the surplus question paper set from the previous exam might have gotten mixed with the current lot. "The paper setters submit 3-5 sets while only one is picked up by the authority. Probably the rest of the sets from winter exams were used in this summer exam. Hence, questions of the third semester subject appeared in the fourth semester exam," officials said.