MU TO START SCANNING ANSWER SHEETS FROM TODAY

Four weeks after examinations began, officials from the University of Mumbai said that they would start scanning the 22 lakh answer booklets on Thursday.

About 50 scanners will be used at the examination house at MU’S Kalina campus. Around 50 employees have been deployed only for the scanning process. Officials have promised to scan 1.50 lakh answer sheets daily.

“We cannot waste any more time training teachers or waiting for the staff to finish scanning the answer booklets before they start assessing them. We will scan and assess papers simultaneously. There will be experts present at each centre to help the teachers with the assessment,” said an MU official.

After extending the tender process for six weeks, MU finally chose Merit Trac company to assess papers digitally. While the scanners, work on installing CCTV cameras is also underway but biometric access plans are yet to be worked out. MU officials said these features would be soon be functional.

According to the manual assessment system, papers should be assessed within three days after the exam is conducted. Results must be announced within 45 days.

This year, exams started in the last week of March, but the delay in the assessment process has led students to believe that results will be announced late.

Principals fear that results may not be announced till July, especially for faculties with a large number of students, such as Bcom, BSC and BA.