The fiasco over the evaluation of II Pre-University (PU) exam answer scripts is getting messier with a few camp officers (principals of colleges that serve as evaluation centres) reportedly threatening to resign. Their main fear is of complications arising out of “inexperienced” evaluators committing errors in the evaluation work.
The government, adamant on not giving in to the demands of the protesting PU lecturers and principals, has appointed lecturers from private, unaided colleges as an alternative to carry out evaluation work.
On Saturday too, there was no thaw in the stand-off between the government and the protesting lecturers. “No talks were held again. The Minister’s [Kimmane Ratnakar] phone has been switched off and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is not in Bengaluru. We are asking for four increments, and this government is offering us one, and making old increments given during D.V. Sadananda Gowda’s tenure as new ones,” said a lecturer.
Freedom Park — the site of their protest — saw noted names in Kannada literature making an appearance on a day when 50 women lecturers went on hunger strike, one of them falling ill by evening.
At the evaluation centres too, the situation was far from sorted.
“The government will cause irreparable damage by getting private college lecturers with no experience in evaluation to correct some 40 lakh answer scripts. Some camp officers are likely to resign on Sunday and Monday because they don’t want to take responsibility for what could happen if there are glaring errors. They are expecting a repeat of what happened last year,” said a camp officer at a Bengaluru evaluation centre, on condition of anonymity. He was referring to the fracas in evaluation in 2015.
Apart from the lack of regular evaluators, some camp officers, usually principals, also complained of chief and deputy superintendents not being appointed.
“As a camp officer, I only have to receive the answer script bundles and hand it over to the chief superintendent. On April 1 and 2, coding work was done. Coding for the packets had to happen on April 3 and 4, after which evaluation work had to start on April 5. None of this has happened. I have been going to my college every day, finishing college work, and going home,” he said.
Some camp officers are likely to resign on Sunday and Monday because they don’t want to take responsibility for what could happen if there are glaring errors.
Camp officer at a Bengaluru evaluation centre
They won’t take responsibility for errors ‘inexperienced’ evaluators may make
