ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Several BEd students of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) have complained to the varsity's controller examination about the error in the instructions of the English paper held in Spring Semester 2003.

In the question paper available with Dawn, students had been asked to "attempt any five questions, all carrying equal marks". However, there were seven questions out of which three carried 10 marks each, two, 15 marks and two questions carried 20 marks each.

If one went by the instruction, all questions should have carried equal marks, i.e. 20 marks per question. But, this was not the case in the question paper.

If a candidate selects five questions which in total carry 60 marks - three questions of 10 marks each and two questions of 15 marks each - it means he\she has to obtain 40 marks to be declared successful as mentioned in the original question paper which is not possible in theoretical papers.

One of the students said the question paper was so confusing that most of the candidates attempted all seven questions instead of five to make sure that they passed.

A girl student said when the superintendent of the centre at Government High School No 2, Mansehra, was asked to clarify the confusion, he replied: "Follow the question paper, whether it was right or wrong." He did not bother to contact the regional office.

When approached, AIOU controller examination Dr Faqir Mohammad said students were right in expressing their concerns as there were mistakes in the question paper.

"Centres that contacted us were clarified about the mistake on the very same day of the examination. However, since AIOU has set up centres across the country it was not possible to communicate with all centres," he said.

However, the university has directed the tutors concerned to consider every question for 20 marks and see if some other measure could be adopted to address the concerns of the students.

When asked about the examination branch's role in issuing flawless question papers, he said: "In almost every programme of the AIOU, we follow the same pattern whereby five questions have to be solved by candidates, but in this case, mistakenly questions were allocated different marks."