The university officials are trying to find space for storing the answer scripts.
Chennai: In the wake of revaluation scam that rocked the university and state, the university has decided to keep all answer scripts for a minimum period of one year.
It further instructed examination officials to give strict instruction to students to strike down unwritten answer scripts to prevent malpractices in the examination.
As of now, the university is disposing of answer scripts of previous semester exams during the start of next semester exams due to lack of space. But, they have to keep the disputed answer scripts (scripts which were sought revaluation) for a long time as per the rules. “We have decided to keep all the answer scripts for a minimum period of one year. It will soon be placed before our syndicate committee for approval,” sources in the university said.
The university officials are trying to find space for storing the answer scripts. Around 12 lakh candidates appearing for each semester exams and over 70 lakh answer scripts have to be kept for each semester.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has registered a case against former controller of examinations G.V. Uma and nine others for allegedly taking the bribe to boost the students’ marks during the revaluation.
In the FIR, DVAC has alleged that Uma and others have illegally destroyed all the disputed answer scripts and thereby wiping out the evidences for the scam.
The Anna university has suspended Uma and two others after finding evidence against them for their involvement in the scam.
Following the recommendations from the internal inquiry committee, the university has instructed all officials involved in the exam process to give instructions to students to not to leave any unwritten pages in the answer scripts.
After scrutinizing the disputed answer scripts which were awarded more marks after revaluation, the committee members suggested that striking out unwritten answer sheets will reduce a majority of malpractices in revaluation.
“One answer sheet booklet contains 44 pages and on an average, the students are writing 30 to 35 pages only. The inquiry has revealed that in many answer scripts which were manipulated, the blank space was used by the scamsters to write answers during the re-evaluation process,” sources said.
“All the engineering students will be asked to fill a separate column in which they have to give the number of pages they had written in the front page of the booklet,” sources added.
It would be the responsibility of every hall supervisor to ensure that all the blank pages are stricken. The evaluation system will also be overhauled and one chairman will oversee 10 examiners instead of 15.
“During the tenure of vice-chancellor convener committee headed by higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal, the valuation system was completely overhauled. We will improve it further and make every chairman responsible for the lapses,” a source said.
Meanwhile, the experts pointed out that adopting digitisation in evaluation process could solve the university’s revaluation problem. “If the answer scripts are scanned and stored in digital format, they can dispose of the hard copies while keeping the originals as soft copy.
They can retrieve the original answer scripts any time. If the university moves to digital evaluation method, the malpractices will be checked,” they suggested.
Forward only worthy forms, principals told
To prevent the huge number of applications seeking revaluation, the university has instructed all the principals of engineering colleges to forward only if they sure that the students will get the upward revision in the revaluation.
“The rule says that the expert should forward only the worthy applications. But, due to the pressure from the college management, the principals are forwarding all the applications they receive from the students resulting in huge applications for revaluation,” officials said.
The university has received 1,98,000 application for revaluation and it was reduced from 2,21,597 in the previous semester. During April/May 2017 it has received 3,02,379 applications for revaluation.
Guv seeks report about scam
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit who is also chancellor of varsities has sought a report from Anna University on the revaluation scam. While registering a case on cash for marks scam against former controller of examinations Uma and nine others, the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption is also looking at the MoU between university and startup to provide transcripts online and on how the varsity awarded Rs 62 crore contract to a firm that was only two weeks old.
Sources said the Governor had asked for a report about the extent of the scams and how took place in the university. Meanwhile, the university is also conducting a separate internal inquiry regarding the irregularities committed by former CoE during her tenure from 2015 to 2018.
