How can one person check 664 answer papers in a day?

The statistic may be unbelievable, but it is true. An assessor of the centralised paper correction team of the University of Pune (UoP) has checked as many as 664 answer papers in a day. Three years have passed since a former Senate member and professor of chemistry at HV Desai College Atul Bagul wrote to top officials at the University of Pune (UoP) pointing out gross irregularities in paper correction of engineering students but not much has changed.



Complacent: A former senate member has accused the UoP of not
taking action against errant professors. file pic

Even after a committee appointed by the then Vice-Chancellor Narendra Jadhav found his allegations to be true, no action was taken against the errant professors. Fed up, Bagul filed an application under the Right to Information Act to get details of the inquiry and subsequent action and now wants the matter to be taken up by the Senate and the current Vice-Chancellor R K Shevgaonkar.

"I asked for complete break up of the number of answer sheets, examiners and the number of days taken to check the answer sheets. According to the rules, an examiner should not check more than 120 papers a day. The reply I received shows that examiners checked upto 300 papers a day. In some cases, people were found to have checked 449 and 664 papers a day," said Bagul.

Examiners get a compensation of Rs 5 to Rs 8 per paper examined and taking an average of 120 papers checked in a fortnight, an examiner could claim a compensation of Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000. "According to information I received under the RTI, examiners have submitted bills amounting to Rs 77,000. Imagine how many papers they checked? Even after all this was exposed by committee's report, the Senate merely passed a
resolution stating that the professors involved had no mal-intentions but simply did so in over-enthusiasm," Bagul said.

The resolution just demanded that such mistakes do not get repeated. Bagul, however, is not ready to give up so easily. "I do not want this issue to die down so easily. The students suffer, as they prepare so much and the examiners don't even spare two minutes to correct their paper. Such examiners should be banned from correcting paper and I hope the varsity officials take cognizance this time," said Bagul.

The other side
Shivaji Ahire, controller of examinations, UoP, said that the issue was old. "The resolution passed did not seek action against professors as they had no mal intention. It just demanded that such things didn't take place again. That's all our department is expected to do," he clarified.

RTI revelation

S. No	No of papers corrected in a day	No of examinersu00a0
1	121 to 130	80
2	131 to 150	97
3	151 to 300	132
4	More than 300	25

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