Mumbai University’s Former vice-chancellor (V-C) and Rajya Sabha member Bhalchandra Mungekar wrote an open letter to Governor C H Vidyasagar Rao expressing his anger towards the online assessment chaos. Once again he has asked immediate resignation of current VC and has asked to initiate the process of appointing a new VC.
Related Article: Mumbai University's Deadline Extended To August 5
On Wednesday, July 26, Bhalchandra Mungekar demanded the resignation of VC Sanjay Deshmukh for messing up the online assessment and for making students suffer. In the letter, apart from demanding resignation, he has mentioned about Mumbai University’s way of functioning.
Shri C H Vidyasagar Rao,
Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra and The Chancellor of the University of Mumbai, C H Vidyasagar Rao
I am writing this letter to your good-self with extreme pain and anguish with a view to putting forth the voice of lakhs of students of the Mumbai University (MU) and their parents who have irreparably suffered due to the recent crisis that has held to the ransom their academic future.
Being privileged to be VC of this prestigious University (2000-04), following professional ethics, I assiduously avoided commenting on many unpleasant events in the University affairs thereafter. But I cannot remain a silent spectator to the ongoing unprecedented crisis and chaos of its own making that is jeopardizing not only the future of its students but the ethos of one of the most prestigious universities, unfortunately in its 160th year. In view of this, it is with utmost respect to your good-self as the Constitutional Head of the State of Maharashtra and the Chancellor of MU, that I am constrained to painfully submit the following for your careful consideration.
1) Since most details of agonies faced by MU on account of short-sighted, irrational, ill-prepared and irresponsible decision of online assessment taken by The VC, Sanjay Deshmukh, are in public domain, I don’t think these need further substantiation to seek his immediate resignation. But the damage doesn’t end there!
2) Your intervention on 4th of July to review the situation, which had already gone well out of control, was too late to plan any further remedial operations.
3) One finds extremely difficult to justify the deadline of ‘31st July’ given by your good-self, knowing that, by then, only less than 10% out of 18 Lacs answer-books were corrected. Further, the sanctity of the deadline renders meaningless when you gave another extension of 5 days to complete more than 60% of the ‘target’ (i.e. 306 out of 477 examination results are still pending). I am sure, you would appreciate that the arbitrary ‘fixation’ and ‘extension’ of these deadlines have made a mockery of the whole process & its seriousness.
4) These deadlines have taken an irreparable toll on the ‘quality’ of the assessment for sure. Has there been a prior approval taken by the VC before involving teachers from other universities (Pune, Nagpur, Shivaji) who do not teach MU syllabi, nor are they conversed with the MU examination patterns. Leaving the news of occasions where even the non-teaching staff was assigned the work of assessing the answer-books, this leads to an unprecedented violation of the examination rules and also propriety, hence the system is answerable.
5) Of late, it is evident that, in order to meet the target-date, MU has started declaring partial results with around 80% of answer-books checked, keeping the remaining results in abeyance or reserve. This defies comprehension. How is the VC emboldened to take such decision? Does this have your approval and do we expect this as a precedent for the future?
I must bring to your attention that this unprecedented chaos on account of ill-preparedness of MU in conducting an online assessment is a resultant of the ‘over-empowerment’ of the VC and his non-accountability in the absence of ‘systemic checks & balances’ over the last two years. Thus,
Last, but not the least, do you have any words to console students and their parents who have suffered in this unjustifiable and ignominious delay in declaring their results of the crucial degree examinations and possible forthcoming questions on the ‘quality’ of assessments?
It’s a time for a deep introspection to reinstate the confidence of students, teachers, and people of this state in the institutions that are built over years.
This calls for your immediate action in this matter w. r. t. the following: 1. Immediate resignation of current VC and initiating the process of appointing a new VC;
2. Appointment of an administrator to manage affairs of MU in the interim;
3. Appointment of full-time Controller of Examinations;
4. Initiating a process of forming Management council, Academic council, Senate, Board of Studies, Board of Examinations etc as per University Act;
5. Appointment of high-level judicial committee under the chairpersonship of a retired High Court judge to comprehensively enquire into all issues relating to this unprecedented crisis
I have no ambiguity in my mind that your good-self would be extremely concerned to bring the sense of urgency in this matter & restore the confidence in the system. Else, the traces of the chaos would cross the Rajabhai Tower to the Rajbhavan.
With most respectful regards,
Yours sincerely,
Bhalchandra Mungekar
Share
Tweet
