The ongoing examination paper assessment mess has taken a new turn as the University of Mumbai (MU) Vice Chancellor (VC) Sanjay Deshmukh has appealed to the chancellor to institute a probe into whether the delay was an accident, or technological lacuna or a possible sabotage to protect vested interests, through an unbiased committee comprising experts from evaluation and technology fields.
Brushing aside criticism that the implementation of On Screen Marking (OSM) was done without taking into account the concerned staff, he said, "On the contrary, before the launch of OSM, it was deliberated across all faculties in great detail at various Principals' fora and in various university bodies and authorities,'' he noted.
He further stated that if the OSM process did not have a provision of easy reassignment of wrong answer scripts to the common pool, it could have further delayed the results. Deshmukh admitted that during the evaluation process, evaluators reported several technical glitches in the form of exceptions.
"This must have caused confusion among the evaluators but it did not cause major disruption to the evaluation process due to the existence of OSM process,'' he said.
Deshmukh, who was sent on two-week leave from August 9 over the result delay fiasco, has sought the Chancellor's permission to resume his duties as the Mumbai University VC. However, a state education department officer told DNA, "So far, there has been no communication from the Governor's office in this regard. The priority is the declaration of pending results at the earliest."
END TO MALPRACTISE
In his four-page reply, the VC said that On Screen Marking (OSM) was the only way for the timely declaration of results and to stop malpractices in the evaluation process, reduce negligence of assessors in assessment and to make revaluation time-effective and free from all malpractices.
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 "Sanjay Deshmukh")
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