Govt order results in serious anomalies

PATNA: Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (Futab) working president K B Sinha on Wednesday said that the order given to universities to conduct examinations as per dates fixed by the government and publish results by June end has resulted in serious aberrations.

In some universities, examination forms were filled by students along with their admission without the conduct of even a single class. In some universities, the examination results have been published with 80 to 90 per cent results remaining pending.

It is still fresh in the memory of the academics that on the call of Jayaprakash Narayan, students boycotted their examinations in 1974 and a large number of teachers, who joined the movement, either remained underground or were arrested under Misa.

To desist the university administration from succumbing to the pressure of students and to create a fear psychosis among the teachers, an ordinance was promulgated providing that the dates of university examinations shall be fixed by the government and will be published in the official gazette and also that any change could be made only by a subsequent gazette notification.

Under this ordinance, the power of appointment and awarding punishment was taken away from the Syndicate and vested in the vice-chancellors who could take disciplinary action against teachers either by suspension, withholding of increment or even dismissal from service. A code of conduct was also prescribed for teachers, mentioning the don’ts to dissuade them from joining the movement.

Old timers also recall how the district administration moved about from house to house and pressurised guardians to send students for appearing for examinations under police escort.

The administration succeeded in getting hardly 10 per cent students appear for examinations though. Students were taken in police truck to examination centres with absolutely no invigilation, etc.

Almost 35 years later, the provision of fixing examination dates by the government is being re-invoked to prove the supremacy of the HRD department. Will the government run by the people emerging from JP movement give a re-look at these provisions and remove the scars of the past, asked Sinha?