Teachers back but refuse to speed up paper assessment

A day after teachers called off their 96-day boycott of university exams and related work, they reported to paper assessment centres to deal with a backlog of 50 days of uncompleted work.

A day after teachers called off their 96-day boycott of university exams and related work, they reported to paper assessment centres to deal with a backlog of 50 days of uncompleted work.

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But despite the backlog, teachers have refused to take on extra work and have not heeded the university’s plea to speed up the assessment process to ensure results are out on time (in May-June).

“If the university wants to bring out the results on time, they should increase the number of moderators and examiners,” said Shivajirao Patil, president of the Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (MFUCTO).

“We will not allow the university to increase the number of papers each moderator or examiner will have to correct.”

A large chunk of papers have not yet been assessed, although the university had appointed temporary staff to check the answer sheets. For instance, 82% of TYBCom papers are yet to be moderated (re-tabulated) and 32% have not been corrected even once.

Meanwhile, teachers have said they are prepared to face action by the university for not reporting to assessment centres to correct papers during the boycott, but they are upset over the state’s decision to withhold their salaries for the same. “The university has a right to take action against us, but the government cannot cut our salaries as we were not on strike, but only boycotting exam duties; we did not ignore college work. The remuneration for such duties is separate and not included in our salaries,” said Patil.

Minister of higher and technical education, Rajesh Tope’s decision is against the court order, said CR Sadasivan, president of Bombay University College Teachers Union (BUCTU). “The government has already released full salaries of agitating teachers who joined their duties on May 5 and 7. How can they cut only our salaries?” Sadasivan added.