Minister of Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant has been receiving flak from student unions for his assurance that students would receive question banks before final-year exams are held as per the multiple-choice questions (MCQ) format across Maharashtra in October.
Contrary to Samant’s announcement, the University of Mumbai’s (MU) September 16 circular to its affiliated colleges has stated that only sample MCQs and not question bank will be provided to students, causing panic among many.
RD National College Principal Neha Jagtiani said: “As instructed by the university, we have uploaded about five sample questions for students across courses to guide them about the way questions will appear during exams. We will be conducting mock tests for our cluster of colleges on October 1 to give them a demo of the software that will be used to conduct the exams.”
Many colleges in Mumbai conducted online exams for Allowed to Keep Term (ATKT) students on Friday, even as mock tests remain to be held. Exams for regular final-year students are slated to be conducted between October 1 to 31.
On September 10, Samant had tweeted, “A proper discussion with respected Mumbai University vice-chancellor Mr Pednekar was conducted. He declared that before MCQ exams students will be provided with a proper question bank two days prior to exams by the respective universities.” When contacted, an official from MU said, “It has been decided that a question bank will be formulated for the use of the colleges in setting question papers, and only sample questions will be shared with students.”
This difference of stance has led student unions to protest. “When the minister had tweeted that universities will share question banks with students, why isn’t it being done? Students are already stressed because of the pandemic and lack of clarity from MU is just adding on…” said Mahesh Samant, advisor to Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti.
Maharashtra Students Union president Siddharth Ingle said, “We have met Samant twice and have been demanding that question banks be shared with students since when the pattern of the exam was finalised. But even after several assurances, no action has been taken.” Maharashtra Students Welfare Association members also condemned Samant.
Despite repeated attempts, Samant was not available for comments.
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