Exam results elude students of Unani

The exams were conducted from October 6 to 10 in three subjects — Amraze Niswan (gynaecology), Tareekhetib (which deals with the history of unani medicine) and Ilmul Qubalat (obstetrics). By university rules, the results should have been out by November end.

According to the affected students, delay in the declaration of results has become an annual affair now. This in spite of the fact that the university has only one college under it teaching unani medicine — the Anjuman-I-Islam Tibbia Medical College and Hospital at Nagpada, with a batch of 25-odd studentsevery year. And it is the correction of the papers of this small batch that the university finds difficult to finish on time.

Says a student, “Every year, we complain to university officials about the results being delayed. And their stock answer is that medical courses’ results will come after those of BA, BCom.” The five-and-a-half-year course in unani medicine, which includes a six-month internship period, is at the bottom of the university’s priority list, he says. University officials however refute this contention.

College authorities and students agree that examiners are the biggest problem. As a student puts it, “Teachers never correct papers on time and the results are inevitably declared late.”

To assess each paper, the university appoints one internal and one external examiner, the former from the college itself and the latter chosen from other universities. “Several external examiners don’t turn up at all, especially during vacation time,” say college sources, adding that theuniversity then has to find other examiners. The examiners who conduct practicals and viva are supposed to correct the theory papers as well. “But a lot of problems crop up in finding examiners itself,” say sources, adding that even several of those examiners who turn up do not correct papers on time.

With results being delayed, students complain that it affects admissions for the fifth year, which are started only after the declaration of the fourth year results. The admission process, which should have started in December, is delayed by over a month, says a student.

The exams for the final year start in October; teachers therefore rush through the fifth year syllabus, so as to complete it in the limited time available, says a student, adding “Consequently, we are the ones who suffer as we get lesser time to study.”

The fate of fifth year students with KT (Keep Term), who take the fourth year exams to clear their backlog, is also similar. Fifth year students who haven’t cleared the fourth yearsubjects can have another try in April, just before their final exams. But as results are declared late, students say they don’t know which subjects to concentrate on till the very end. “When the fourth year results are finally announced, we’ll need to send some papers for revaluation. But even the revaluation results are declared late, so till the eve of the exam we don’t know in which subjects we’ve passed,” says a student.

When contacted, the university Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra said, “We are looking into it.”