Onscreen assessment has cost MU Rs 1.18 cr so far: RTI reply

Interior of Mumbai university convocation Hall. Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty 06-06-2014, Mumbai

THE ONSCREEN assessment process, implementation of which was followed by a delay in declaration of results of the summer semester of the University of Mumbai this year and resulted in the removal of vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, has cost the university Rs 1.18 crore so far. In response to a query by activist Anil Galgali under the Right to Information Act, the university has said Rs 1.18 crore has been paid to Merit Trac, the agency implementing the process, and Rs 2.99 crore remains to be paid.

Documents reveal that Merit Trac Services Pvt Ltd raised two bills for its services — the first of Rs 1,48,63,750 on May 18 and the second amounting to Rs 2,69,27,350.99 on August 16. While the university has made a payment of Rs 1,18,17,404, the balance of Rs 2,99,73,696 is pending. A senior official said the university had to bear a one-time cost to set up the onscreen system and that the cost for evaluation would be reduced eventually. “With the onscreen process, our cost on logistics has reduced drastically. Once the system is completely implemented and teachers are comfortable with it, costs will further reduce,” he said.

After it switched to onscreen assessment from manual correction earlier this year, the university had faced great embarrassment when the examination department failed to declare results within the statutory deadline of 30 days. The delay of almost three months affected the future of 4.5 lakh students. The issue was also raised in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly with the Opposition seeking the resignation of Deshmukh as well as state Education Minister Vinod Tawde. Deshmukh was later sacked.