Maharashtra: Action against staff responsible for question paper errors
Fed up of the repeated mistakes appearing in question papers for degree college exams across streams, the Maharashtra government now plans to take strict action, including debarring, stopping increments and promotions, against paper-setters.
Fed up of the repeated mistakes appearing in question papers for degree college exams across streams, the Maharashtra government now plans to take strict action, including debarring, stopping increments and promotions, against paper-setters.
In the current system, most paper-setters get away with a light punishment. Ravindra Waikar, minister of state, higher and technical education, said, “The government will not go soft on erring staff. We will not allow paper-setters to play with the career of students. Such errors will no longer be tolerated.”
Recently, errors were reported at exam centres across the state in Mumbai, Kolhapur, Marathwara, Pune and Amravati. While re-examinations were held later at some of the centres, the errors led to utter chaos during exams at some places. A case in point could be an exam centre at Kolhapur, which got 50-mark papers, instead of 100-mark ones. The officials at the centre then had to rush to the printing press to salvage the situation.
In Amravati, the students were given the question paper of Education Psychology, which was scheduled three days later, on the day the exam for Emerging Indian Society was scheduled. In Mumbai, errors were reported in the Operation Research exam.
The state has also asked vice-chancellors of the respective universities to give detailed reports on the action taken against erring teachers.
Parents have welcomed the move. “Our children study throughout the year and even one error can prove to be devastating for their career,” said Sachin Gala, a parent.
