students in the lurch for wrong subject

ROURKELA: The fate of Plus Three Economics students of Sundargarh Government College hangs in the balance as they were taught wrong subject for Semester 4.The students were taught Public Economics, out of the old curriculum, instead of Econometrics of the new syllabus. Ironically, the students learnt about it only during the Economics-10 paper during Semester 4 examination on August 5. Nearly 24 second year students were shocked to see out of syllabus questions during the examination and none of them could write the answers.

The students said though they had immediately reported the matter to college authorities, there is no response either from SGC authorities or Sambalpur University. With their future uncertain, nearly 21 students signed a petition and sought the intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
On August 28, in a petition to the Chief Minister on his Twitter account, the students accused the University and college authorities of playing with their future. They alleged that no steps have been taken to correct the blunder, so far.

College Principal Dr Kishore Kumar Dash attributed the blunder to misunderstanding between SU and Department of Economics of SGC. Dr Dash said the course syllabus for 2016-17 batch students was kept same for 2017-18 academic session, but for new students of 2017-18 the course was changed as the new students were supposed to study Econometrics in the second year for Semester-4 exam. But, the SU authorities did not mention it clearly, the Principal claimed and added that Department of Economics continued to teach Public Economics as it was an important paper. He said similar issue was reported from three more colleges in other districts.

The Principal said the issue has been taken up with the Controller of Examination of SU and hoped a decision would be taken in favour of the affected students in a week.