Mumbai University directs colleges to speed up evaluation
Mumbai University has asked its colleges to speed up the assessment process by assigning evaluators in proportion to their students. Reportedly, only 28% teachers are evaluating the answer scripts and only 6.5 lakh out of 18 lakh answer sheets have been assessed so far. The on-screen assessment system adopted by the university this year was blamed for the delay.
With just 30% degree-college teachers reporting for paper assessment, the University of Mumbai (MU) will issue notices to teachers who are yet to start assessment .An official, who is involved in MU?s assessment exercise, said the notice will inform the teachers the consequences of skipping assessment work. The university has prepared a list of more than 1,000 teachers from its affiliated colleges who will receive such notices, said the official.The Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016 makes it mandatory for every teacher of the university, its affiliated, conducted colleges, community colleges and recognised institutions to assist the varsity in conducting examination and evaluation. ?If any teacher ... fails to comply with the order of the university ... the employee shall be liable for disciplinary action,? reads the act. So far, only 3,500 of the 11,500 evaluators have started assessment work even as the varsity races against the time to assess the answer sheets and declare the results. However, according to the official, many of the evaluators were enrolled with the varsity?s examination department recently and are yet to finish the formalities. The notices will only be served to those teachers who have done assessment work before.?The notice will serve as a warning to the teachers who are skipping assessment duties. While the university is not considering any action against errant teachers, it cannot be ruled out,? said the official.The university?s decision to adopt an on-screen assessment system has caused a huge delay in declaring results this year. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who also serves as chancellor of public universities in the state, has asked MU to declare results by July 30. Read: Delayed Mumbai University results to cost pharmacy aspirants a yearAccording to a source, so far, around 6.5 lakh out of 18 lakh answer sheets have been assessed, with around 55,000 papers evaluated on Tuesday.The university has also issued a circular to all the affiliated colleges, seeking details of their faculty. ?The colleges are required to fill a proforma to indicate how many teachers they have and how many of them are assessing papers,? said Anil Patil, director, academic planning, MU.?The assessment work is mandatory for the teachers who have been appointed on permanent basis. However, those appointed on a contract basis also need to get involved. The colleges must at least take the responsibility of evaluating the equivalent of their own students? papers,? said the official.While the university wants to get the teachers involved in assessment work, many of the teachers, especially those appointed on contract basis, are yet to receive their assignments from the university. ?If a teacher doesn?t know which centralised assessment process (CAP) centre they have been allotted, how can they start the work? We have sent the list of all our teachers to the university. We hope that they will be assigned some work soon,? said Dinesh Panjwani, principal, National College, Bandra.Read: Mumbai university assessment picks up pace, results of some courses could be announced in 15 days