GU to ‘open’ its answer books

Ahmedabad Mirror: Ahmedabad: Monday, 02 March 2015.

Gujarat University will put on its website answer sheets of the final year students of professional courses like medicine, management, mass communication and a few others. The university will extend the exercise to other subjects depending on the outcome of the pilot project that begins later this year. Incidentally, Gujarat Technological University had initiated a similar project under which it had begun assessment and made available to its students their evaluated answer books. GTU's has received good feedback on it and is planning to expand its scope.

Vice Chancellor M N Patel said the university was digitalising its work gradually. Admissions, keeping record of office and a few other important functions have already been put online. Documents are being digitised with a view to making information readily available. Culling experience from these activities, the university has decided to put online the answer books of final semester students of professional courses. The idea is to make the evaluation system more transparent and teachers more vigilant while helping students to see their own answer books as well as others'. As these scripts will be available to juniors, they will benefit by referring to them, Patel said.

Some students use RTI route to access their evaluated answer sheets. This step will help them get direct access to them. The vice chancellor thinks there is a lot of potential for development work in the university, but the sheer number of students running into lakhs makes the work humongous and very challenging. "That is why we have taken this pilot project and based on the response, we will take further decision." The vice chancellor thinks there is a lot of potential for development work in the university, but the sheer number of students running into lakhs makes the work humongous and very challenging. "That is why we have taken this pilot project and based on the response, we will take further decision."

However, GTU is facing certain problems in its project. The answer scripts are sent to the evaluators in digital form, but they experience bandwidth issues. Students have welcomed the move, but are a bit guarded at the same time. Said BJ Medical Junior Doctor Association Hiren Rana, "It is a very good initiative, but there could be problems too. If we talk of medical examinations alone, each answer book could run into 70 or even 80 pages. There might be differences in presentation of answers and this could lead to controversies. Some people might even misuse the facility that is actually taken in good faith."

Another medical student, Nirav said, "As I understand, officials do upload answer keys in PG medical examination. We would welcome teachers evaluating the answer books with more responsibility but some people may misuse the facility." Some students are skeptical of the move though. "The university is talking of digitising evaluation process and taking other big steps. But its website has not been updated for a long time. A lot of information which we are expected to get online, is not uploaded. Why, the basic task of announcing results online does not happen on time. The university needs to focus on its basic functions first," said a student requesting anonymity.