University of Mumbai (File photo)
AMID THE chaos over the onscreen assessment process of the University of Mumbai that has led to delay in result declaration, a government-appointed assessing officer has now issued a notice to the technical service provider over the glitches in the system. Vinayak Dalvi, officer on special duty to the examination section of the varsity, on Saturday served a notice to the agency handling the onscreen assessment process.
“We have issued a strongly-worded notice citing all the problems encountered by teachers so far. We have asked the service provider to ensure that no glitch is encountered Monday onwards,” said Dalvi. Despite the varsity’s measures to fast-track the assessment process, assessors claimed that technical glitches were setting them behind their targets.
After governor and MU chancellor Ch Vidyasagar Rao rapped the university for delaying the results of final-year students, the varsity has taken various measures to speed up the process. However, over 6.4 lakh answer sheets of a total of 22 lakh are yet to be evaluated.
The chances of the university meeting the chancellor’s deadline of July 31 look bleak, according to teachers. Dalvi said, “It is a very difficult target, but not impossible if teachers cooperate and there are no technical glitches.”
On Friday, the university declared Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as non-teaching or non-instructional days so that teachers could concentrate on assessment and moderation of marks. However, assesses said that they encountered several glitches such as incorrect answer sheets and slow downloading.
An assessee told The Indian Express that logging in and downloading answer sheets consumed most of her time. “Once the paper is downloaded, taking a long time, you realise it is the wrong paper and hence have to reject it,” she said.
Amid the technical problems, the varsity has handed over a part of the assessment work to Nagpur University. Teachers of the university are likely to begin correction from Monday. “A team of eligible teachers have been selected for the assessment process. They have been trained. The service providers have enabled the computers at Nagpur University for onscreen assessment. We hope to start assessment there from Monday,” said Dalvi.
While the assessment will be done in Nagpur, mark moderation will be done by senior faculty members in Mumbai.
