Mumbai University lags, requests colleges to help for pending assessments

As the maximum number of answer scripts pending for assessment is from the law department, a meeting was called earlier this week to discuss the problem.

In an attempt to finish the assessment of answer booklets from the last semester, the University of Mumbai (MU) is trying to get help from colleges.

The meeting was attended by principals of Law colleges and the Department of Examination and Evaluation of the university. (HT File)

As the maximum number of answer scripts pending for assessment is from the law department, a meeting was called earlier this week to discuss the problem. It was attended by principals of Law colleges and the Department of Examination and Evaluation of the university.

“College principals have been given clear instructions to get hold of all their faculty – permanent as well as visiting – to ensure that everyone completes their share of assessment work,” said Arjun Ghatule, incharge Director of Board of Examination and Evaluation, MU. He said that all principals have been asked to encourage teachers from their respective colleges to finish assessment work over the next five days so the university can announce all pending results by early next week.

HT had recently reported how around 100,000 answer scripts are still pending for assessment and around 150 results have yet to be announced by the university.

In some cases, like the Bachelor in Mass Media (BMM) subjects, the university is also requesting colleges to share the names of teachers who can moderate (re-check) answer scripts.

On-Screen Marking (OSM) system was introduced by MU in April 2017 and the unpreparedness of the university led to a delay of almost five months in announcing results. Not only did this delay affect students from last academic year as their wait for their results seemed endless, but also students from the current academic year, as their winter examinations as well as the academic schedule had to be postponed by a few weeks.

The university wants to announce the results of all courses in a week.

“By this weekend, we also hope to release the examination schedule for the current semester and for that, we need to complete all pending assessment work from the previous semester,” added Ghatule.

MU has also been personally contacting teachers and encouraging them to finish assessment work on a daily basis.

However, colleges are finding it difficult to tap all teachers and ensure their attendance for assessment duty.

“Most law colleges heavily depend on professionals from the industry to teach regular classes as a visiting faculty. Three of my teachers, who are on board with us for the previous semester are not teaching in our college anymore and therefore, we can’t even force them to report for assessment duty. Most Law colleges and many institutes running unaided professional course are facing the same problem,” said the vice principal of a south Mumbai law college on condition of anonymity.