Only 1/3rd of MU teachers signed up for assessment
MUMBAI UNIVERSITY RULES WERE CHANGED IN 2018 TO MAKE ELIGIBLE IN-HOUSE AS WELL AS VISITING FACULTY ELIGIBLE TO ASSESS PAPERS
Months after the University of Mumbai claimed that they managed to announce results of all exams held in the first half of 2019 within the stipulated time, figures revealed that only a third of the teachers eligible to assess the papers signed up for the work.
The university’s examination department recently revealed that assessment of all papers held in first half of 2019 (second half of the academic year 2018-19) was assessed by 5,525 teachers, whereas the total number of eligible teachers was beyond 15,000.
“Since 2018, teachers, as well as colleges, have been sent several reminders and in many cases, our staff has personally called teachers and encouraged them to assess more papers on a daily basis. Despite all these efforts, the assessment burden seems to be shared by only a few,” said an official from MU’S examination department.
After the 2017 fiasco when thousands of MU students were left waiting for their results over six months after their exams concluded, MU finally managed to declare results of all exams conducted in the first half of 2019 this year, before the new academic year commenced. As per information shared by MU, of the 424 exams conducted in the first
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half of 2019, the results of 200 exams were announced in 30 days, whereas results of 116 exams were announced in 45 days.
In order to ensure that more teachers share assessment responsibility, the university changed the eligibility rules in 2018. While the original rule made only approved staff eligible for assessment work, this rule was changed to make eligible all those in-house as well as visiting faculty to assess papers. Remuneration reimbursed to every teacher, per answer booklet was also increased in 2017 from ₹8 per answer booklet to ₹16 for evaluation of every 100 mark paper.
“Despite these pointers, the work still seems to be shouldered by only a handful of teachers and the main cause for this problem is the dependence of most unaided and professional courses on visiting faculty or industry experts. Most colleges can’t pressure visiting faculty to participate in assessment work,” said a senior official from MU.