In the months of November and December in 2018, semester examinations were held by the Anna University of Chennai. The shocking piece of news that has come out now is not even one student has passed in six of the affiliated colleges belonging to Anna University or AU. It is important to mention here that as many as 682 students appeared for the examinations under the B.E/B. Tech degree programmes from these affiliated colleges of AU.
In 2018, 2 of the affiliated colleges of the 6 poor performing colleges did not feature in the university allotment list of students are known. It is important to note that one institution inspite of being mentioned in the list did not include any student.
The point to be noted is cursory view of the admission pattern in the 73 affiliated institutions that have registered less than 10 percent pass this semester shows that few institutions have managed to admit 1 or 2 students in the second and third round itself. It is revealed that more than 75 percent of the seats have remained vacant. The pass percentage of above 50 in the semester was found to be present in just 59 institutions and that was among the good performing colleges. Only 85.57% of students have passed in the best performing college.
According to an official, the university officials maintain that they were abiding by a directive from the court by releasing the performances of the colleges in the previous semester. He spoke about how it was not any analysis but a raw data only. The university officials have pointed out that the colleges that admit around 95 percent or more of its allotted intake has ensured that their past performances do not fall. Based on the difficulty level of the question paper, the subject committee has the authority to award as much as 10 marks. This has been followed by the university as a system of moderation.
A professor explained about how the teacher in a college would not have any idea about the difficulty level of question paper and this has led to the concept of moderation. The point is this moderation has helped in bridging the gap over the variation in the pass percentage that the colleges have posted in the internal examinations. Candidates who failed by few marks were awarded 10 marks by the committee that has the authority. This has been responsible for the improvement of the results and this was under the scheme.