Nagpur: Taking a cue from Nagpur University’s online multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations last year, teachers have started training students in that direction. However, it has the flip side, since the same teachers would be setting papers for the postgraduate exams of their students, say NU academics.
They cautioned the NU administration that there were 100% chances of manipulation in papers conducted by colleges for their own students. Last year, the exams of backlog and external students were entrusted to the colleges by the NU administration citing heavy load in the Covid-19 pandemic. About 99% of the examinees cleared with flying colours.
Management Council member Vishnu Changde slammed the NU Exam Section officials for confusing the students and compromising the standard of education. “There is 100% chance of manipulation, as no college would like to fail their students. Ideally, NU shouldn’t have entrusted this responsibility to them. The issue was discussed in the Management Council meeting, where we advised NU top brass to devise standard operating procedure (SOPs) for colleges to hold the papers, but nothing was done,” he said.
A head of the department from a leading college told TOI that one of the teachers from his institution approached him for setting a language paper. He had already decided to entrust the task to her, as she was the only one teaching the subject in the entire college. “When I spoke to the students, they told me that she taught them in MCQ pattern and also took their practice multiple times, where questions were set by her. We then decided to set the paper through a lecturer from another college.”
One principal said the students who were failing since the last seven to eight years have managed to clear the papers set by teachers who taught them. “As the exams were taken online with zero proctoring, it was easier for examinees to adopt unfair means. It was impossible for NU to monitor the colleges neither its administration made any attempts to regulate exams conducted by them on their level,” he said.
NU April 3 convocation deferred
After failing to get confirmation from chancellor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and also in view of the alarming Covid-19 situation, NU has deferred the April 3 convocation to confer doctor of law (LLD) on Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Bobde.
Vice chancellor Subhash Chaudhari replied to TOI’s message that the ceremony was rescheduled for April 11, but confirmation from the guests was awaited.
NU officials told TOI that even the CJI had some prior commitments on the same date while the President of India Ramnath Kovind had declined to attend the ceremony citing Covid-19 situation. “Now, NU is communicating with vice president Venkaiah Naidu to grace the occasion. The CJI also told us that he would be arriving in the city on April 10 for inauguration of some facility and it would be suitable for him to attend the programme the next day,” the officials said.