Not being marked present in class has proved costly for at least 1,500 II Pre-University (PU) students across the State. They will not be allowed to write their final examinations beginning this Friday as they do not have the requisite class attendance.
These students will now have to re-enrol as II PU students for the 2016-17 academic year, and appear for the exams only in March 2017. As per the records of the Department of Pre-University Education, the hall tickets of 1,500 students were returned to the board saying they had failed to meet the attendance criteria. The number is likely to increase further by Friday. The department mandates that a student should have a minimum of 75 per cent attendance. An official said the department had sent clear instructions to colleges at the beginning of the academic year warning them that students down in attendance will not be able to take the examination.
K.R. Manjunath, principal of MES PU College, BTM Layout, who is also Secretary of the Karnataka State Pre-University College Principals’ Association said that colleges make students aware of the gravity of the situation at the beginning of the academic year and warn students that they may lose out on a year if they do not attend classes regularly.
“Most of the time, parents are not aware that their students are skipping classes. So, we announce the attendance list four times in the academic year. We also call parents of students who have shortage of attendance midway through the academic year and ask them to give an undertaking that their child will attend classes regularly. Despite this, in some rare cases, students fail to make up the attendance criteria,” he said.
The students will have to re-enrol and appear for the exams only in March 2017
