BENGALURU: Observing that it is not only the number of litigations, but the number of lives which are dependent on evaluation, more particularly students in the younger age group whose confidence could be affected if they are declared failed due to improper evaluation, the Karnataka High Court directed the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to impart necessary training to evaluators before giving them evaluation work.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by Dr Abhishek Sutrave, a student of Government Homeopathic Medical College, over the lack of response of the college on the alleged arbitrary award of marks for a theory paper.
The court referred to the impact of discrepancy in evaluation on the psyche and future of students and their families, society as a whole as also on the college and university. The manner in which cases have been coming up before the court, it would be clear to the university that the thousands of petitions are with regard to discrepancy in valuation, on account of which a student is declared failed. It is time that concerns expressed by the court are considered by the Academic Council in the perspective and action taken, rather than disown or abdicate responsibility on account of administrative difficulties, the court added.
The court noted that reasoning of the Academic Council would indicate that 3,000 subjects are being taught, and there are already 10 question papers for each subject which have been prepared, which would mean the university has no problem or difficulty in preparing 30,000 question papers, but has expressed difficulty in preparing corresponding model answers or key answers.
The Academic Council would have to reconsider its decision on this aspect. The person who is setting the question papers would be the best person to prepare the key answers or model answers. Thus, while preparing the question paper, model answers or key answers could also be prepared by the same person who has set/drafted the question paper. This would not cause any administrative strain on the university, but would go a long way in catering to difficulties faced by students.