Anna University has barred as many as 1,070 teachers from taking up examination-related activities for up to three years. These include activities such as setting question papers and evaluation.
The university conducted an inquiry based on the central valuation done by examiners during April/May 2017 examinations. It has been receiving flak as, increasingly, students who apply for revaluation had also received better grades.
A student pays ₹300 for a photocopy and ₹400 for revaluation per script. The student can also challenge the valuation for ₹3,000 per script.
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Inquiry in three cities
The university conducted an inquiry on September 27 and October 21 in three cities — Chennai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore.
Sources in the university said the teachers whose evaluations did not corroborate with the revaluation results were called and asked to revaluate the papers.
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At the end of the inquiry, of the 1,169 faculty members, only 99 were spared punishment. The most number of “illogical evaluations” were committed by faculty from Chennai region (680). In Coimbatore region, only two of the 121 faculty escaped punishment.
The inquiry report said there were “alarming variations in awarding marks in central valuation.” The committee had given them an opportunity to “substantiate your reasons for awarding illogical marks in the valuation, you have miserably failed to do so.”
The report stated, “The committee found you have not evaluated the answer scripts according to the instructions and guidelines given to you and failed to carry over the duties and responsibilties assigned to you as an examiner.”
“We analysed the result and listed answer scripts wherever there was a jump by two grades after revaluation. Based on the jump in marks, we called the teachers for enquiry,” said Higher Education Secretary and the university’s convenor committee chairman Sunil Paliwal.
“Anna University makes money from revaluations. We wanted to correct the system,” he added.
Complaints ranged from faculty skipping the first day of evaluation devoted to instruction to colleges sending junior faculty in their place. The evaluators contended that they did not have access to answer keys.
New rules
From now on, 10 evaluators will report to one senior professor (chairman) instead of 20. Earlier, only the chairman had the answer key but henceforth each evaluator would have an answer key.
The University proposes to include evaluation as a criterion for affiliation as University officials complaind that evaluation process was affected as affiliated colleges sent junior teachers instead of senior faculty for evaluation.
“Affiliation will be based on evaluation performance: how well the colleges cooperate by sending senior faculty; ensuring that faculty attend the orientation programme prior to evaluation; and if the faculty do the evaluation properly,” Mr. Paliwal said.
The university will also include the clause that teachers who violate the evaluation rules would be debarred. Their names would also be uploaded on the University website, the official said.
“This time we have not done so as in the appointment orders for evaluation we did not include the clause,” he said.