Mumbai: Answer sheet policy irks engineering students

Many engineering students have raised their voice against the University of Mumbai’s decision to do away with answer sheet supplements during the exam.

The policy was announced in the wake of a recent decision, to assess the answer sheets online after scanning.

An engineering student said, “This is unfair. How can they restrict us from writing answers in the exam? We have every right to ask for a supplement.” The students are currently giving their semester exams.

University officials, however, claimed that the announcement wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.

“We just want students to use the main answer sheet intelligently. The main booklet already has 32 pages, which is good enough for any paper. Under the new assessment system, the sheet will first be scanned and then uploaded online for assessment. The supplementary sheets may create a problem due to loose staple pins and, hence, may get misplaced,” said an official, adding that many students waste pages and unnecessarily ask for supplementary sheets. The students will now be given one only if the supervisor considers it to be a genuine request.

The online assessment aims to reduce an examiner’s workload and also steers to fasten the revaluation.

The varsity is currently running a pilot project with engineering courses. If successful, the online assessment and other related norms will be extended to other courses as well.