B’lore: After re-evaluation, II PU student zooms from zero to 100

 

Bangalore, 14 June 2014 (Bangalore Mirror): Gururaja secured 93% in the other five subjects, but he was still ’Fail’; now he’s among the toppers in the state If any other student who’d always aced his exams had seen the marks sheet, he might have been driven to the brink, perhaps, even committed suicide, like is the trend among youngsters these days. Thankfully, 18-year-old Gururaja survived the ’zero’ in his II P U result and saw it turn to 100 following a re-evaluation.

 

Early on in life, Gururaja had learnt to be a fighter. Born into a poor farmer’s family in a remote village in Bellary district, he was born with a disability in his right hand. Instead of letting that become a handicap, he simply taught himself to become a southpaw and shone academically.

 

So when he was handed the all-important II PU Arts results last month, he got a shocker on seeing he’d been marked ’zero’ in the Education paper, though he had scored brilliantly in every other paper.

 

 

"Failure in even one subject would mean losing a year. The only option was to take the supplementary scheduled for July first week," he said.

 

Though the PU department maintains that students who take supplementary exams can still enroll for first year degree courses if they clear the paper, the ground reality is quite different. Results of supplementary exams are announced only in the last week of July or first week of August by which time admission season is already in full swing, and these students cannot get in anywhere.

In Gururaja’s case, it was his college principal who refused to believe what he saw on the marks sheet. He had gone the extra mile to grant him admission, and held firm to the belief that he had not made a mistake. "He had approached me a year ago as he wanted to shift to our college. Generally, we don’t recommend students in the second year. But looking at Gururaja, we had second thoughts," says Indu PU College principal HN Veerabhadrappa.

 

He says they had to get approval from the management as he was a special case. "He was not only a special category student, but a bright student. Over the next few months, we knew we had made the right choice as he used to score exceptionally well in exams."

 

He says when the II PU results were announced last month, no one could believe he had scored zero. That’s when the principal decided he had to do something himself. "As he had taken the exams in a neighbouring college, I went there to make inquiries. I got to know he had taken six additional sheets - clearly indicating he did not deserve a zero." The principal then personally called up the PU board for clarification. "After a few days, I got a call that he had indeed scored 100 out of 100 marks." The college authorities then got photocopies of his answer sheets which was final proof of Gururaja’s mettle.

 

But getting his marks sheet rectified wasn’t easy either. Gururaja says as they hardly knew anyone in Bangalore, his cousin had to take along four lecturers from his college to the PU department to get the marks sheet changed. "We have spent close to Rs 10,000. I just hope the PU department realises its mistake and reimburses the expenses we have incurred."

 

Commenting on the faux pax, a II PU official said, "When we verified his paper, the evaluator had failed to mark properly on the OMR (optical mark reader) sheet and, hence, 100 was declared as zero." The official, however, added, "We ensured we rectified the mistake at the earliest."

 

Gururaja had scored 95 in Kannada, 90 in Sanskrit, 91 in History, 97 in Optional Kannada, 96 in Political Science and zero in Education. His initial total was 469 out of 600 marks - a good 78 per cent, but still a fail in the Education paper. With 100 out of 100 in Education, his total score has soared to 569, making him one of the toppers in the state, with his percentage at 94.8. His college principal says that since Gururaja belongs to the ST category, he is the topper for his community in the entire state.