Winter exam preps begin

Mumbai: Tensions are high ahead of the winter examinations (second term), as the University of Mumbai (MU) and the Maharashtra government have finalised for the assessment process the firm allegedly responsible for the four-month delay in the declaration of final year results, MeritTrac. However, preparations have begun for the next slot of assessment, and the varsity has already tagged 16,000 teachers. The winter examinations will be conducted in October and November.

“Last time, everything was too sudden for the staff because of which they could not prepare themselves. Moreover, the idea of OSM was initiated after the examination, which is too late. However, this time, for the winter examinations, we have already started our process and we have more than a month for the assessment to actually begin,” said Dr Arjun Ghatule, the Controller of Examinations and Evaluation.

When asked about if the company selected for OSM would be able to manage this time, he said, “Though we have the same company, the system will be an upgraded version. The software will be different. The system will be more clear and will have a better flow of procedure.”

The varsity has started preparing the OSM system and the CAP centres where the teachers will do the assessment. The machines that scan papers before assessment are also ready at the univarsity.

According to the preparations done by MU, Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) papers will be assessed first.  “Once the exams are done, the papers will be bought here (to the university); sent for scanning, which would take around five to seven days; and then sent to teachers for assessment. I am very confident about the assessment of the winter examination being successful,” Mr Ghatule said.

On Saturday, the varsity finalised the dates, timetable and schedule for all the examinations except Engineering, which will be done soon. Around 15 lakh students are said to appear for the second term exams. Unlike last time, there will be a proper question paper (QP) code in each paper so they are properly scanned.

Also, there has been a change at the top of each answer booklet in order create uniformity in all the papers, whereby a single machine can scan these papers.