KATHMANDU, MARCH 31

The country's oldest university has been infamous for the majority of its actions, including the politicization of vice-chancellor's selection, equivalency issues and a lack of timely results. And once again, its recklessness has unnecessarily hassled students making them appear in re-examinations of the subjects that they had already written last year.

Students were impatient because the results had not yet been published; however, TU had something else to offer the students at the time of publishing their results such as rescheduling the examination for subjects for which teachers had lost the answer sheets after the previous year's examination.

Subsequently, Tribhuvan University, with due diligence, has decided to conduct the exam again a year after a the answer sheets for two subjects were lost.

Issuing a press statement on March 28, TU said that attention has been drawn towards news published in the various media outlets regarding the issue of answer sheets of two subjects lost by the TU.

As a result, Population and Health, Subject Code No. 422, and Basis of Education, Subject Code No. 412, of B.Ed will be re-examined under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Faculty of Education, respectively. TU has informed that over 375 answer sheets have been lost. Hence, a re-examination of these two subjects will be held on April 3. The examination of this subject was held last year in May 2023.

In the meantime, a high level three members probe committee has been formed, under former registrar Prof. Chandramani Paudel, to conduct a detailed investigation and submit a report within 30 days, according to a press statement issued by the TU.

Similarly, on Facebook's official page along with the attached press release from TU, Education Minister's Secretariat said, 'We are aware of such incidents happening in a consistent manner. We must all be sensitive to the mental stress and extra burden placed on the examinees, as well as the questions and doubts raised about the university's credibility.'

It further reads that, 'Such problems will not be solved only by re-examination of the candidates whose answer sheets have been lost. To prevent such incidents from occurring again, it is necessary to identify the cause of the incident, take robust action, and improve the process.'

'As a result, we express our commitment that the Ministry of Education will support the committee formed by the Secretariat of the Executive Council of the TU to the greatest extent possible in creating a fair, fearless, and results-oriented working environment.'

On the other hand, Nepal Students Union Central Committee Member Binod Deuba Thakuri said, 'It is not anything new from TU that we have heard about and we are not surprised either as such incidents have become an inevitable part of TU. But we are concerned about the VC's and staffers' carelessness as they have yet to learn from their persistent mistakes.'

He also added, 'It doesn't only raise questions over TU but also the Minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology who assumed the ministry with a new whim to clean up the education system in Nepal. As a result, we have asked the TU's VC to serve as the VC of the students rather than CPN-MC in order to restore TU's greatness.'

Agitating students have also stated in their demands to the VC that this time you (VC) were appointed through the process for which we advocated and ran a national campaign on open selection.

'However, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal played with it, and we had high expectations of you! But these recent incidents have also raised concerns about your intent.'

Talking to THT, Thakuri said,'Our demand is that the short notice (merely a week) exam routine be cancelled, responsible people be held accountable, and then TU can ask each college to take internal assessments of students rather than another 3-hour memorisation exam, which is always traumatizing for most students.'