Assessment of papers picked up during holidays, says Mumbai university

Less than a week after it was reported that less than 300,000 answer booklets out of the total 13,00,000 have been assessed online by the University of Mumbai in

Less than a week after it was reported that less than 300,000 answer booklets out of the total 13,00,000 have been assessed online by the University of Mumbai in the past seven weeks, officials in the examination department said that another one lakh answer booklets have been assessed in the last five days.

They told HT that teachers now have more time to assess papers since colleges are on Christmas vacations.

“Until now, teachers were busy with supervision as well as regular lectures, because of which assessment had taken a back seat. We made sure no examinations are scheduled during Christmas holidays so that teachers have free time for assessment work,” said Arjun Ghatule, director, Board of Examination and Evaluation, MU. He added that at present, more than four lakh answer booklets have been assessed, and even on Christmas (December 25), over 1,000 teachers had registered for assessment duty.

Last week, teachers had complained to the university against errors in the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, which was leading to a delay in finishing assessment work. In a meeting held to discuss the errors and find solutions for the same, it was decided to hold a one-day training session for the IT coordinators of all 282 CAP centres in the city. This was done to ensure that the IT coordinators are equipped with knowledge to solve any queries made by teachers during assessment. The OSM sysem, introduced after the last semester exams, was responsible for the delay in assessments and declaration of results. The mess led to the sacking of the university’s vice chancellor.

Over the next one week, the university hopes to finish assessment of more answer booklets. “Our focus is on ensuring that results are announced soon, and teachers are doing their best. The software too is running smoothly, so we expect better numbers in the next few days,” added Ghatule.