the goan I network
PANAJI
In a move that could entirely eliminate the risk of leakages involved in distributing hard copies of exam papers, the Goa University is in the advance stage of implementing a 100 per-cent online route to reach the question papers to all its affiliated colleges located across Goa. According to the plan, soft electronic copies of the question papers will reach the Colleges minutes before the scheduled examinations instead of the current process of sending hard copies the previous day.
Goa University’s top brass discussed the plan earlier this week in a marathon meeting with principals of affiliated colleges from across the State.
At the meeting the Goa University’s Vice-Chancellor Prof Varun Sahni explained the proposal to the principals.
Up until now, question papers were being sent to the colleges in vans a day before the scheduled examination date.
If the new move is implemented, the question papers will be sent only online just before the commencement of the exam, depending on how many students in the college are enrolled to answer the exam. The respective college will then have to print out the paper, and photocopy it. Once a nod comes from this team, the Goa University is hoping to implement the move from this year itself starting with the approaching October-November season of semester examinations.
The decision has not been conveyed officially to the colleges yet, as a technical team of the Goa University is set to visit the affiliated colleges later this month to ascertain that colleges have adequate IT infrastructure in place to adopt the electronic mode of receiving the question papers.
An educationist privy to the meeting with the principals, who however did not want to be identified, told The Goan on Friday that the plan was first proposed by the Controller of Examinations (CoE) several months ago.
It is now at an advanced stage of being adopted to eliminate the risk of question paper leakages, he said, adding that the new electronic system is being successfully implemented in Pune University which has 356 colleges affiliated to it.
“A trial run of the system was already implemented at the Goa Engineering College in its June semester-end examination as a pilot, and it was successful,” he said.
In order to allay apprehensions of certain heads of institutions, the University has agreed to pay the rental cost of the heavy-duty printer required to print these papers en-masse.
Some principals, especially from rural areas, have raised certain apprehensions like, what will happen if the internet connectivity at the college is not good, and whether there will be sufficient time to print out question papers on the days when hundreds of students are answering a particular exam.
The University authorities are hoping to resolve these and other issues raised by the principals and may hold another meeting for the purpose shortly.
