mid-day editorial: MU must re-evaluate its exam system

After putting students and professors through months of anxiety with its On-Screen Marking system and the ensuing results fiasco, Mumbai University (MU) is now considering returning to the traditional manual method for the reassessment of exam papers.

The varsity has been flooded with 50,000 applications for re-evaluation and photocopy requests. Add to this, there are 28,498 answer sheets that are currently non-traceable. To combat the chaos, authorities want to go back to the old school methods to hasten the process of re-evaluation. More so, because next semester's exam schedule is out already.

An official admitted that answer sheets have been lost in the online system and need to be traced. Time is of the essence though. It is unacceptable that answer sheets simply go missing online. Isn't this the exact thing that an online system is supposed to prevent? While hurrying with the evaluation process, MU simultaneously needs to find out how online papers can simply go missing, so future lapses can be avoided.

It is shocking that student's answer sheets are treated in such a casual manner. A student's future can swing on one per cent here and there. Admissions are already ruthlessly competitive, arduous and stressful. Just one or two sessions at an academic helpline will help illustrate the kind of crushing pressure students are under for good marks and admissions in institutes of their choice, or frankly any institute at all. The last thing they need to compound their stress is a bungling university, delaying results and failing in its job.

Given the current scenario, it is evident that not enough research or thought has gone into the online system. One can only pray that the knots unravel quickly, but given the problems dogging the university, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg.