MU to continue with MeritTrac till 2019 winter exams
However, as per MU officials, the assessment is doing fine this year, and hence it will continue until the three-year contract expires.
MUMBAI: MeritTrac, the company that manages the online assessment in the University of Mumbai (MU), will continue to assess papers till the 2019 winter examinations. In November last year, state education minister Vinod Tawde had told this newspaper that the company would be replaced, given the delay in issuing examination results and the mess created by it last year. However, as per MU officials, the assessment is doing fine this year, and hence it will continue until the three-year contract expires.
In 2017, ex-Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh had announced that all answer papers would be assessed ‘online’ and the task would be handed over to the Bengaluru-based company, MeritTrac. However, due to lack of any pilot project, planning and management, the idea flipped, affecting the lives of the students. The results were delayed by almost six to seven months after conducting the examinations. Looking at the situation, the assigned committee by the state IT department asked the varsity to look for another company.
While talking to The Asian Age, Mr. Tawde had spoken about ‘scrapping’ the company and replacing it with another. “Though the state asked us to replace MeritTrac, MU and the company signed a contract of three-year and it could not be broken off at any case. However, for this year’s assessment, MU and the company incorporated several upgradations in the system to make the assessment easy and quick,” an official at MU said.
According to officials, MeritTrac will continue to assess papers till November-December 2019.