Server fail lets down evaluation work on MU's 1st non-instructional day

Mumbai University's idea to speed up the evaluation process with non-instructional days failed miserably on its first day, as most teachers could not log into the systems due to servers being down.

The university announced non-instructional days from Monday to Thursday to complete the evaluation of over 6 lakh papers with barely a week to go for the July 31 deadline.

However, teachers at various centres were unable to log into the system. "Officials from the agency were also unable to resolve the issue. The day was a waste; we could neither conduct lectures nor evaluate papers," said a teacher from a South Mumbai college.

At centres with fewer computers, teachers has to wait endlessly, as teachers who logged in once didn't want to risk logging out during breaks either. "I had to wait for a free computer for three hours, and then spend another six hours to screen papers as per guidelines," said a professor from eastern suburbs.

Officials at the university said, that though server issues were reported, the highest number of teachers assessed papers on Monday. "A total of 5,023 teachers assessed papers, the highest so far since mid-May. A total of 95,937 papers were assessed and moderated, which is very close to the target of 1 lakh papers per day," said Vinayak Dalvie, Officer on Special Duty (OSD).