MU results: OSM should not be solely blamed for delay, says testing services company MeritTrac

Mumbai University

THE ONSCREEN assessment system should not be solely held responsible for the time frame or accuracy of exam results, according to MeritTrac, a testing services company that conducted the assessment of answersheets of the University of Mumbai.

The company, which has faced criticism because of the delay in declaration of results at the University of Mumbai, is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Manipal Global Education (MaGE), of which Mohandas Pai is the chairperson. In an email response to The Indian Express, Nagendran Sundararajan, Executive Vice President of MeritTrac, said, “Any large OSM (onscreen marking) project is transformational in nature and requires meshing of systems between the Institution (sic) and the service provider. There are many other factors and elements coming into play that will decide the pace of the evaluation process. Therefore, one cannot assume that OSM solution is the only factor that will decide the time frame or accuracy of exam results and make allegations on the OSM system.”

While the results of the summer semester are usually expected by mid-June, the results this year were declared as late as September. The last round of results were declared as late as mid-October. Assessors have alleged that there were problems in the linking of answersheets to the correct question paper codes and to the seat number of students. Students, on the other hand, have reported errors in their results, with some being marked absent despite appearing for the exam. On October 17, as many as 2,300 students, whose results were withheld, were granted average marks as their answersheets were untraceable.

The mess has resulted in the sacking of Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, who had made the decision to adopt the onscreen assessment process. Political parties have also sought an inquiry into the appointment of MeritTrac for the project.

Reacting to this, Sundararajan said, “When On-screen marking system is introduced, the accuracy, security, transparency and availability of data is greatly improved, often putting pressure on rest of the systems in the institution to improve.”

While students, politicians and academicians have alleged that the agency’s lack of experience in handling answersheets in the magnitude of those at the University of Mumbai led to the chaos and delay, Sundararajan said MeritTrac has worked with over 15 institutions across the country and assessed over 1.5 crore answer scripts so far. Over 17 lakh answersheets had to be assessed by the agency for the summer semester exams of the University of Mumbai.

“MeritTrac has served large Boards and Universities successfully in providing OSM solution. There are many institutions where the total number of evaluations through OSM exceeded more than a million in a year with instances of number of evaluations touching around 3 million in a year,” said Sundararajan. Pai did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked if the agency is implementing any changes after its experience with the university, he said that improvements in products, processes and platforms was a continuous process at MeritTrac. “We work on a consultative approach to share knowledge, insights and receive feedback,” he said.

While Sundararajan refused to divulge the financial details of MeritTrac’s contract with the University of Mumbai, official sources at the university said the agency was appointed at a rate of Rs 23.5 per answersheet. The agency is estimated to earn at least Rs 4 crore for scanning and assisting in the assessment of 17 lakh answersheets.