The mysterious disappearance of 276 answer scripts of the third semester M.A. Sanskrit Sahitya exam of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit and its sudden discovery months later found resonance in the Syndicate meeting held on Friday as a decision was taken to revert to the previous system of centralised evaluation.
The department-level evaluation of answer scripts was adopted in the wake of the COVID-19-related restrictions. But the disappearance of the answer scripts and the suspension of a senior faculty member under the interim arrangement meant that the representatives of the teachers insisted on returning to the centralised system.
Sangamesan K.M., who was suspended by the university on the charge of being responsible for the loss of the answer scripts, was reinstated immediately after the papers were recovered from the exam wing on Monday. The university had found his explanation that he had handed over the answer scripts and grade sheet to the head of the department unsatisfactory. The Kalady police had since then registered a case of theft.
“It was pointed out that even SSLC and Plus Two exams taken by lakhs of students followed the centralised evaluation system in compliance with the COVID protocol. The university has all the infrastructure for holding such camps,” said Bichu S. Malayil, a Syndicate member and general secretary of the Association of Sree Sankaracharya Sanskrit University Teachers.
The three-member internal inquiry commission appointed by Syndicate to probe the missing answer scripts chose not to submit an interim report in the meeting considering that the answer scripts were recovered and the suspension was revoked. “However, we insisted on continuing the probe to expose the conspiracy behind the incident. We also found the high-level police inquiry into the incident satisfactory,” said Ms. Malayil.
The meeting also decided to give guideship to the newly recruited 20-odd teachers with PhD and published works, without considering their teaching experience to meet the shortfall in guides for PhD students.
