LAHORE, Nov 28: Teachers of various departments of the Punjab University have declared the BA/BSc semester system of autonomous colleges faulty, saying that achievements of a large number of students at the graduation level belied their abilities.

“Under the semester system the graduates are given over 80 per cent and in some cases over 90 per cent marks, which look unrealistic when compared to the abilities of the students,” many teachers told Dawn here on Tuesday.

“Most semester system graduates show dismal performance during the MA session at the PU. A few of them do not even get through the first annual examination. The inflated marks also make them overconfident, which is something that mars their performance even during various class assignments.

“The PU has been facing this problem since the grant of autonomy to various institutions a couple of years ago,” they said.

For admissions this year, the university had multiplied the marks of these students with 0.85 to bring their inflated achievement on a par with that of students who had graduated through the annual examination system. Still, there are 900 semester system students as against 800 of those who had graduated through the annual system.

PU teachers alleged that the Government College University was ahead of other autonomous institutions in giving inflated marks to its average graduates. Such problems could not be resolved till the adoption of a strict internal checking system.

When contacted, GCU vice-chancellor Dr Khalid Aftab said the standard of semester system was very strict, with 50 per cent as the passing marks. Under the system, a student had to work harder, he claimed.

Rejecting the allegation that the GCU was giving more marks than the students deserved, he said that if a student obtained 90 per cent marks at the graduation level but did not show similar performance at the post-graduate level, it was because of his lack of interest rather than some fault with the semester system. “The semester system students do not get lenient marking at any stage of their studies up to graduation,” he said. As far as the GCU was concerned, it sent its papers for external checking as well, he maintained. — Zulqernain Tahir