All is not well with the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) mooted to be an umbrella body for all medical-related courses in the state.
Poor and unscientific evaluation system followed by the university has put a blot on it.
Unlike other universities, the KUHS, that was set up in 2010, follows a strange double valuation system of examination papers. As per norms, whenever there arises a 15 percent difference in marks, the answersheet is sent for a third scrutiny.
However, most often there is always a huge disparity in marks after the second valuation, proving that the whole exercise is a waste of money and time. It is widely alleged that fallout is due to the casual approach of examiners.
Recently, 70 percent of the papers of third year Pharm-D exam were sent for third valuation.
“The Kerala University of Health Sciences lacks a proper valuation system. In other universities 15 answer sheets are evaluated by a teacher on day one and 25 on subsequent days, whereas in KUHS a teacher can evaluate any number of answer papers. There is no supervision. Quite often the difference between the marks obtained in the first and second valuations is so huge that it is often referred for third evaluation,” sources said.Experts demand a scientific mechanism at KUHS for proper evaluation of marks. Sometimes people who do not have any expertise in the field do the evaluation, said a professor, who participated in the valuation camp said.
“Normally, the result of the course is published in December-January. But this time the result has not yet come,” said a student.
However, Dr V Ipe Varghese, Kerala University of Health SciencesRegistrar, said that all the examination procedures are done automatically at the university.
“No human intervention takes place during the procedures. When the answer papers are referred for third evaluation we normally go for it,” he said.
KUHS was established under the ‘Kerala University of Health Sciences Act 2010’, to ensure proper and systematic instruction, teaching, training and research in Modern Medicine, Homoeopathy and Indian Systems of Medicine including Ayurveda, Siddha, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani and other allied sciences and also to have uniformity in various academic programmes in medical and allied subjects in Kerala.
The university is mandated to affiliate all institutions in Kerala that imparts professional education in health care.
So far 249 professional colleges have been affiliated to it.