To entertain RTI cases CU to ‘mask’ the answer scripts

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 22, 2007
Calcutta University (CU) on Thursday took its initial steps to cope with various cases that might arise in the aftermath of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Under Graduate Council of the university on Thursday, decided to ‘mask’ the answer scripts using code to prevent revealing the identity of students and examiners. The examiners from now on will have to write down his code number instead of signing the answer scripts. With the implementation of the RTI Act, students can demand to see their evaluated answer scripts.
“In such a case we cannot reveal the identity of the examiner, or his security might be jeopardised. To avoid such problems in the future the UG council decided to mask the answer scripts,” said Prof. Suranjan Das, Pro-Vice Chancellor (academic).
The students will have their roll numbers but the controller of examinations department will replace it with a code after the exam is over. This is just one step that the university has taken but the authorities will have to find answers to several other questions.
To do that the information officers of all the universities will meet in the second week of April. Das will coordinate the meeting and the report will be submitted to the chancellor of all the state universities, Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi by the end of April. According to a high court order, the university has to keep answer scripts for 6 months after the result is published.
But what if a student wants to see his answer scripts after that time period? “We will have to decide for how long the university will be bound to show the answer scripts after the publication of results,” said Das. The universities will also explore whether they are bound to show the answer scripts to students if a request is filed citing the RTI Act.
Incidentally, on March 20, Gandhi had asked vice chancellors of all universities to decide on how would they address issues, which would come up post RTI Act.
Apart from the RTI issue, the Under Graduate Council took another important decision related to examinations. From now on, teachers will not be allowed to take answer scripts of general subjects back home for correction. Instead they would have to visit the zonal centre and evaluate the answer scripts there. The proposal for introducing new honours subjects in the Science stream was also accepted. However, the subjects would be decided in the next meeting.
As per UGC regulations, the university is bound to publish the results by June, and to do that, the university would have to implement few more changes in the examination system. And to do that the statute of the examination would have to be changed. But since the university body election notification has already been given, the statute can be changed only after a few months.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com