A disappointed Prof UJ Dixit, who was disallowed a discussion on OMR system in senate meeting on March 28, resigned.
When the over three lakh students appearing in the university examinations last year complained about the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) answersheet system introduced by the University of Mumbai for the first time, the Examination House along with other top varsity officials denied it hands down.
Now, over a year later, a confidential report of the statistics department submitted to the varsity on March 14, 2012 has not only confirmed that the complex system resulted in delayed result (by an average of 19 days or more) but also that over 92% students want it abolished or improved upon. DNA has a copy of the said report, which was based on the feedback of 735 students, 134 supervisors and 127 professors.
After being tested by eight students of MSc (Part 2) under the guidance of HoD (Statistics) Dr UJ Dixit, the report against OMR was submitted a week before of the 2012 examination, but is gathering dust in the vice-chancellor’s office. This, even as students and supervisors struggle to cope with the stress of the OMR, which involves darkening circles corresponding to roll number, exam date, question paper code, subject code, seat number, language code, semester and section of paper code.
Stating that the report clearly recommennds abolition of the OMR system, Dr Dixit said, “It transfers the workload onto the students, supervisors and professors. While supervisors and professors would get used to the system year by year, students would always face problems. Moreover, the system takes 25% extra time as compared to earlier bar-code system with holograph sticker.” In 2011, on an average the results took 87 days as against 79 days in 2010 and 73 days in 2009.” TYBCom and TYBSc took the maximum of 102 days in 2011.
While OMR may have been introduced with the aim at error-free faster evaluation and result process along with confidentiality, the project report termed the complex system as “useless” as it stressed students to commit more errors. Supervisors too wasted nearly 1.5-2 hours completing OMR formality, thus affecting their invigilator duties.
A disappointed Prof UJ Dixit, who was disallowed a discussion on OMR system in senate meeting on March 28, resigned the same day.
Both the vice-chancellor and BCUD director Dr Rajpal Hande were unavailable for comment.
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