Times of India: Nagpur: Wednesday,
June 26, 2013.
An RTI query
has confirmed that 'ineligible' persons, like the president or secretaries of
college managements, were awarding internal marks to students, including
sessional marks in the engineering faculty. This was widely expected since over
125 colleges had been operating without a single regular lecturer, which led to
a ban on admissions in these colleges by NU.
This
malpractice has been admitted by NU for at least the last three academic
session, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. This information was provided by NU
assistant registrar (confidential) Raman Madane in reply to a RTI query posed
by Sunil Mishra.
This long
list of colleges includes engineering colleges run by former minister Vijay
Wadettiwar's VMIT Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lonara-based Central
India College of Engineering, Wardha-based Baburao Agnihotri College of Engineering,
Shri Sai College of Engineering at Bhadravati, and Tulsiramji Gaikwad Patil
College of Architecture.
However, the
last name might have been inadvertently included in the list, since
architecture courses don't have sessional exams, said college chairman Mohan
Gaikwad.
NU controller
of examinations (CoE) Vilas Ramteke expressed surprise at the development and
made it clear that only an approved and recognized teacher can conduct
practical or sessionals, and award marks as an internal or external. "The
president or secretary is absolutely not allowed to award any marks to the
students, even if they are qualified to do so, as they are not academic
officers. Generally, these marks are routed only through the head of department
(HoD) and principal with their stamps and signatures," he pointed out.
Regarding
NU's failure to stop this malpractice, he said, the practice may have continued
from last many years and the marks came directly to the assistant registrar
(confidential) in a sealed envelope. "The envelope is opened in the
presence of teachers when calculating marks. Hence, it was never checked,"
the CoE said, adding that now they will put a check on all practical or
sessional marks to prevent such malpractices.
Joint
director of technical education Gulab Thakre endorsed him saying that only
regular lecturers were allowed to award any marks in any course.
VMIT director
Nitin Vighne blamed NU for the mess, saying that the university failed to grant
approval in time to them. "Our former principal Jayant Gangreddiwar left
the college after some differences with Wadettiwar. The chairman then took
control of college work and, therefore, he had to sign the sessional marks as
NU doesn't accept other signatures. At that time, we didn't have regular
lecturers and principal, but now we have full strength," he clarified.
Jai Mahakali
Shikshan Sansthan joint secretary Sachin Agnihotri told TOI that they were
closing their college due to shortage of faculty. "Baburao Agnihotri is
our newest college, but teachers don't want to stay in Wardha. Even in our
other colleges, we're bringing teachers from other states."
Speaking
about sessional marks awarded by management persons, he said it was NU's fault,
as they had told us to club appointments of all three colleges and then failed
to clear files.
.JPG)
.JPG)
