60% of BSc nursing students fail across state, fault marking system

The university, however, says the change in the marking system and decision of re-totalling instead of re-evaluation has been done to improve quality of nursing education and stop corruption in re-checking of answer-sheets.

At B J Medical College in Pune, of the 55 first-year students, only 18 have passed while 25 have failed and 18 have one or more ATKT (allowed to keep terms).

At J J college in Mumbai, of 60 students, 23 have passed while 22 have failed and 15 have ATKT. At Government Medical College in Aurangabad, of 65 students, 23 have passed while 35 have failed and 7 have ATKT. At Government Medical College in Nagpur, results are slightly better – 24 have passed students and 13 failed.

Priya Hawale, a first-year nursing student at Sinhagad College where 25 of the 51 students who appeared for exams have passed, said she was one of those students who were facing a “year down” situation due to change in marking system. “Earlier, if students got less in theory, they could cover up in practicals. But from this year, the marking system says that a student must get 37 marks in theory and 13 marks in practicals. We have to get minimum 50 per cent passing marks, but instead of a combination score adopted until last year, now individual scores are counted. Hence, though my overall percentage is 64 per cent, I have still failed in four subjects since I got only couple of marks less in theory papers,” she said.

Another first-year student facing a year’s loss is Prakash Rathod from MIT Nursing College in Aurangabad, where only 9 of the 39 students have passed. “In one subject, I have failed by only one mark. I have applied for retotalling. If I get that one mark, I won’t lose my year. If not, I might go back to my village in Beed district where my parents are farmers,” he said.

While the problem is acute in case of first-year students, it has also affected some final-year students. Samuel Kamble, a final-year student at BJ Medical College in Pune, says that over the last three years, he has had an all-clear record. “It’s really surprising because I remember writing papers well and attempting the full paper. While we have accepted that we cannot do anything to change the new marking system, the university should at least allow us to go for revaluation of answer-sheets so that if we have attempted answers well and any mistakes happened in evaluation, the same can be rectified,” he said.

Meanwhile, MUHS vice-chancellor Dr Arun Jamkar said that as far as change in marking system goes, it was notified in January while exams were held in July. “The syllabus hadn’t changed in any manner. So we can’t understand how it affects students’ exam preparations. We changed the marking system to improve quality of education. Earlier, students used to score high in internal exams and practicals and barely get any marks in theory but would still pass.”

Jamkar said the change is re-evaluation rule was brought about after a High Court decision following the unearthing of a big scam over rechecking of marks. “We had found a proper network of agents working in connivance with some staffers who would get marks revised for a fee. To stop this, we now ourselves check answer-sheets twice and only allow re-totalling of marks later. Also, we give five grace marks to a student,” he said.

Jamkar, however, also said that a three-member committee headed by the dean of nursing faculty was constituted on Thursday to see if a solution could be arrived at for resolving problem for students who have failed this year.