Students in UP pass after writing ‘Jai Shree Ram’, cricketers’ names in answer sheets. Professors dismissed
The matter came to light when student leaders filed a complaint with Raj Bhavan, along with an affidavit, claiming that professors took bribes to pass students.
Two professors at Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, have come under fire following irregularities in the grading of answer sheets. The professors allegedly awarded marks to DPharms students who had written “Jai Shree Ram”, names of cricketers, and other irrelevant content instead of answers.
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According to a report by Aaj Tak, the incident came to light after two student leaders, Uddeshya and Divyanshu Singh, filed an RTI alleging that the professors had taken bribes from students and passed them. They requested the roll numbers of approximately 18 students of the D Pharma course to obtain their copies and have them re-evaluated. Additionally, they also filed a complaint with Raj Bhavan and attached an affidavit with it.
Subsequently, Raj Bhavan ordered an investigation into the matter on December 21, 2023. A committee was formed by the university administration to investigate the matter. When the copies were re-evaluated by external professors, there was a stark disparity between the marks awarded to the students. In one instance, where the professors had awarded 52 and 34 marks, external evaluators found the same copies deserving of a mere zero and four marks.
In response to the incident, Vice-chancellor Vandana Singh ordered the dismissal of two professors, Vinay Varma and Ashish Gupta.
Earlier, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Arun Bothra took to the microblogging platform X, formerly Twitter, alleging that a student kept money inside the answer sheet with a request to the examiner to give passing marks. He also attached a picture of the notes that were kept inside the answer sheet.
“Pic sent by a teacher. These notes were kept inside answer sheets of a board exam by students with a request to give them passing marks. Tells a lot about our students, teachers and the entire educational system,” Bothra wrote in his post on X. The post received numerous responses from people, with many claiming that it has happened to them, too, or their known ones.
