Number of failures on rise, MLC wants system scrapped

The letter by MLC Ramnath Mote claims that in some colleges, the failure rate rose to a staggering 80 to 85 per cent, while it was 40 to 50 per cent in others. The pattern was introduced in August 2013 by the Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGE&T) in New Delhi and implemented by the state government in the July exam this year.

According to principals and college managements, exams were conducted in the annual pattern till 2013, and was converted to the semester pattern from February 2014. “There was a lot of chaos with the last minute changes in our exam schedule. To make matters worse, even the paper pattern was changed. After the July exam, we found out that they have introduced negative markings, which we were totally unaware of,” said Xavier Mendonca, a student of an institute at Bandra. “We’ll end up losing a year if the authorities don’t take this seriously and scrap this faulty marking system,” he added.

According to the new system, if a student answers four questions wrong, he or she will get negative marks for the fifth answer, even if it is correct. “The system is faulty and will discourage students opting for ITI. If need be, we will meet officials of DGE&T. But we will get this negative marking system scrapped,” said Mote.

Nearly 215 from a batch of 250 students had failed at an ITI in Borivli, claimed the management of the institute. “The directorate recently introduced a new marking system, which gives negative marking to students. This seems to have been the main issue behind students losing so many marks,” said an official from ITI, Borivali.

An official from Father Agnel Technical Institute in Bandra, said that even the syllabus has shifted focus from practical-based assessment to more emphasis on theory, defeating the purpose of the course. “In the July exam, we found out that many questions asked in the paper were not even part of the syllabus,” he added.

dipti.singh@expressindia.com