At PU Evening Studies Dept, results improve, but still long way to go

Bhartesh Singh Thakur 

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, December 19 

The Department of Evening Studies, Panjab University (PU), saw an improvement in its results this year. However, the pass percentage remains below 60. 

In 2017-18, the pass percentage was 58.23 while in 2016-17, it was just around 29.  The department runs BA, BCom, MA Economics, MA Punjabi, MA History, MA Political Science and MA English courses. 

As per the PU’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)-2019 report, of 328 students, 191 passed the final exams in 2017-18. 

In MA English, of 31 students, only 12 passed the examination. The pass percentage for the department was 38.71. 

In BA, of 144 students, just 65 (45.16 per cent) could pass their examination. Only 46.15 per cent students of MA Political Science cleared their examination. However, the success rate in BCom and MA Punjabi was above 80 per cent. 

“We have good students in BCom. We progressed because of strictness with attendance. This time, only 26 students fell short of the required attendance. Earlier, the number used to be around 150. Students used to take admission here just for politics, particularly in BA. So, we reduced the number of seats. If we get successful in shedding the tag of evening studies, our students will be able to get hostel facilities. We can get research projects and our students may not have to give affidavit that they are employed,” said Prof Gurpal Singh, Chairman of the Department of Evening Studies. 

USOL has 45% result  

The University School of Open Learning (USOL), which runs correspondence courses, has recorded just 45 per cent result. The USOL had offered 15 courses in 2017-18, including two certificate courses. The worst performing were students of MA English as only 32 (16.41 per cent) could pass their examination. The course had 195 students. 

Of 851 BCom students, only 302 (35.49 per cent) succeeded in the examination. BA Library and Information Science students were equally worse as just 12 (36.36 per cent) emerged successful out of 33. MA Economics, MA Political Science, MA Public Administration and MA Sociology courses saw pass percentage below 50. 

Other departments  

The Department of Library and Information Science had just 40 per cent result in BSc as only 12 passed the exam. There were 30 students who had opted for the course. 

Just 45 per cent of the students could pass BSc (HS) Physics and Electronics as just nine passed out of 20.

In MSc Biochemistry course, 58.33 per cent students passed their exam while BSc (HS) Mathematics, BSc (HS) Economics and MA Art History and Visual Arts saw 60 pass percentage. 

Best performing 

The departments  which secured 100 per cent results included the UIPS, PU-ISSER, Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology, Institute of Educational Technology & Vocational Education, Microbial Biotechnology,  Environment Science and Vocational Studies and the Centre for Nuclear Medicine.