A group of 100 teachers and students of the University of Mumbai gathered at its Fort campus on Monday to protest against the failure of the administration in declaring exam results and putting at risk the future of lakhs of final year students.
Dr. Tapati Mukhopadhyay, president of the Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation, said, “We are in favour of an online assessment but it needs an infrastructure and a foolproof system to go with it.”
Results which were supposed to be announced within 45 days, Dr. Mukhopadhyay said, had stll not been announced after 90 days. “The chancellor needs to intervene and a proper assessment needs to be done. An investigation into who is responsible for this delay must also be undertaken.”
Dr. Rohini Sivabalan, president of the Bombay University and College Teacher’s Union, said the teachers were in a tough situation. Dr. Sivabalan said, “We will fight tooth and nail till some action is taken. However, as teachers we are walking a tightrope. The brand and market value of the university needs to be kept in mind while exposing the failure. A bad name to the university will result in students facing more problems in securing admission in other colleges.”
According to Valmik Garje, professor of political science at Siddharth College, examiners are facing technical difficulties in evaluating the papers. Mr. Garje said, “A few lakh papers need to be assessed and an online system was adopted without much technical preparation. Papers had not been scanned till the end of May. The examiners were not given proper training to use the new online system, which itself did not work properly. The university’s server was also often not functional.”
Dr. Madhu Pranjape, general secretary of the BUCTU, highlighted the harassment teachers faced owing to the haphazard planning of the assessment. She said, “A mathematics and statistics professor recently received a letter informing his appointment as an examiner for the computer science papers. When he wrote back saying that he was not suitable for the job, he received no response. He later received a memo asking why he had not corrected the papers.”
A united front
On Monday, students also joined in the protests and raised slogans such “Teacher-Student Ek Saath [Stand united]” and “Ladenge, Jeetenge [We’ll fight and win].”
Payu Tiwari, a third year psychology and political science student at the university, said she was uncertain about her future. Ms. Tiwari said, “I had applied to Ireland for my Master’s, but if I don’t get my results by the first week of August my visa will be rejected. Admissions to all universities in India are now closed and I will practically be forced to miss a year.”
Amrin Moger, the women’s representative of Chatra Bharti, a student association, said, “The future of students is at stake. Such delay has never happened before. Will the varsity take the blame for the students losing an academic year?”
Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh was present at the protest.
Amol Matele, Mumbai president of the National Student Congress, said, “The V-C tried to avoid the debate on the delay in results by asking us why we were protesting in the rain. He suggested that we shift our protest beneath a roof. He then left to attend some another protest in Azad Maidan.”