THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The University of Kerala(KU) will undertake a major overhaul of its examination system in the backdrop of repeated incidents of answer sheets going missing. However, the overhaul will be implemented in phases.
As a first step, numbering of answer sheets will be done using bar code. Presently, the answer sheets are being numbered and counted manually which eventually resulted in several of them going missing. V P Mahadevan Pillai, KU Vice-Chancellor, said the process is on to revamp the examination system and the varsity has already informed examination monitoring committee to make the necessary upgradation of the numbering system.
“We can’t change the entire system overnight. It will take a while and we will definitely revamp it quite soon. The process of bar coding the numbering system to ensure a systematic numbering of answer sheets has begun. Similarly, more changes are in the offing,” Pillai said.
According to the VC, the varsity employees tasked with the numbering of answer sheets become confused over the exact number of sheets and this should change.
On the incident involving the disappearance of answer sheets, Pillai, while conceding it is indeed a major lapse, though, pointed out the 45 missing answer sheets are from examinations conducted in the last two years.
“ The answer sheets belong to candidates who appeared for examinations in the last two years. The exam results of several of them had been declared also. However, there are some still awaiting results. For them, we will conduct a re-exam,” the VC said. The feasibility of going in for a complete overhaul of the examination system is being looked into.
Last year, after B Com students’ answer sheets reportedly went missing, KU sprang a surprise by publishing their results.
But the authorities did not reveal how they retrieved the ‘lost’ papers. In 2013, a bundle of answer sheets of the fourth semester MBA examinations of the University of Kerala were reportedly found by the roadside, near Kunnukuzhy here.