Girls outdo boys, overall CU pass rate dips

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, November 26
After besting boys in the higher secondary examination, girls have now outperformed boys in Calcutta University’s (CU) BA and BSc exams. But the bad news is that the varsity’s experiment in conducting honours’ exam in Part I itself has not yielded fruitful results.
For the first time in the history of the university, girls have outdone boys in all streams. While the percentage of girls who passed was about 5 to 10 per cent more than boys (see box), in the Part I BSc general course, the difference was almost 20 per cent. “This could be because girls are more studious than boys,” said Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, controller of exam.
While 92.01 per cent students passed the BA Part I honours exam in 2006, this year the figure has gone down to 75.69 per cent. The result is worse in the BSC honours Part I examination. While 83.91 per cent students qualified for honours in 2006, this year only 69.5 per cent have qualified.
This is the second year running that CU is conducting its exams under the 1+1+1 system. In 2006, the university conducted its Part I exam under the new system minus the honours papers. But from this year, students had to take two honours’ papers in the Part I exam. A section of the university feels it is this inclusion of honours exams in Part I, which is responsible for poor results.
Suranjan Das, pro vice-chancellor (academic) did not agree with this line of reasoning. “All universities in the country that follow the 1+1+1 pattern take honours paper exams in its first year. Apart from achieving parity at the national level, the primary reason for taking the honours exams at the end of first year was to make students serious about their attendance and also make them start studying in advance for their honours’ papers.”
However, the university is considering the sharp drop in the pass rate very seriously and would discuss the matter in its under-graduate council meeting. “We will have to find out why this has happened. As of now, we cannot pinpoint at any specific problem area. But we would look into various aspects like examination structure, question pattern, syllabus and the teaching-learning system followed currently. After discussing the matter in our under graduate council we would make the necessary reforms,” Das said.
Some teachers claimed that since the new Part I examination included two honours papers, the pressure proved to be too much on students. Also, after passing the higher secondary exam many students do not have the maturity to grasp honours’ courses in the very first year. Das, however, also disagreed on this account. “While introducing two honours’ papers in Part I exam, the board of studies for each subject upgraded the syllabus so that it could be taught within an year. However, in case of some subjects we may have to do a rethink.”
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com
Exam funda
No of candidates: 1.58 lakh
Last date of submission of review forms: December 17
Comparative pass percentages:
Total Pass % Girls Pass % Boys Pass %
Part I (under 1+1+1 system)
BA honours 75.69 78.69 70.4
BA general 59.2 65.15 52.88
B.Sc honours 69.5 75 64.15
B.Sc general 46.88 60.2 41.57

Part II (under 1+1+1 system)
BA honours 85.24 87.04 81.56
BA general 77.66 80.38 74.26
B.Sc honours 80.52 84.07 76.26
B.Sc general 79.79 86.1 75.82