KARGIL, AUGUST 25, 2021: Student Education Movement of Kargil Ladakh (SEMOK) in a press conference today alleged mismanagement of Controller of Examination, University of Ladakh in conducting the exams at college. The students raised various issues including mismanagement in the examination hall and high examination fees.

Media Secretary SEMOK Fatima Banoo said that the examination fee for a semester is too high that is 350 for each subject and practical exam. In addition, maintenance fees and the hot and cold charges are also charged from the students. A late fee for filling an examination fee is charged 1000 which is injustice and unbearable for a student. A student if want to appear in five subjects has to pay 3500 rupees which is very high, Fatima added. While quoting students of Degree College Kargil she said that scholarship has also not been released to the students.

She questioned that the University of Ladakh has set exam fees without considering the students’ economy who are mostly come from Schedule Tribe backgrounds. The papers in the exams have also been set in a very unjustified way where a single question carries 24 marks. Accordingly, the students are expected to write a very long answer resulting in being left out of other short answer-type questions. We want to ask which committee has framed such a question paper which is obviously not well thought, she asked.

SEMOK President Ali Murtaza said, earlier when the college was affiliated with the University of Kashmir it was difficult that for every single issue, we had to approach Kashmir University all the long way. But despite establishing a separate university in Ladakh our problems have not been solved yet. The fee structure and question framing approach show that the University administration is not serious about the issues of the students’ fraternity.

Another issue pertinent to mention is that the exam of the first semester of 2016 was held online. However, in the result, the students were shown NA (not available or absent) for the exam despite appearing in the exams. When approached, the University authorities said that their issue has been resolved but, as the result, they were again shown absent.

He further said that the exams are also not conducted on time. We request the University of Ladakh to conduct the exams on time so that the students could appear in the entrance exams of other universities for further admission.

A student of Government Degree College Kargil said that they appeared in the exam today. In each room, there were 30-40 students for which only one question paper was provided, and expected the students to click a photo of the question paper on their phone and manage the exam. It becomes hard for the student to manage the question paper on a mobile phone which is time-consuming during the exam hours, the student maintained.

When the issue was raised to the Principal of the College, she asked the students to raise the issue to the Controller of Examination. We are expected to raise our issue directly to the UoL instead of through the college authorities.

Adding to the student, President SEMOK said that the office of the Controller of Examination is situated in Leh in this case the students in Kargil find it hard to deliver their grievances to the UOL authorities. Thus, we demand to keep the offices of the University on a rotational basis. He further claimed that the Degree College Kargil has the highest enrolment among all the colleges affiliated with UOL but the preference is given to others only.