JOIN USSemester to begin on Dec 5 without lecturers
But faculty members in several colleges, especially those teaching Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) and Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) may not be able to attend the classes as they are busy with valuation.
According to sources, the valuation of answer scripts may go on till December 14 for BBM, till December 12 for BCom and till December 10 for English and Economics subjects. Till then, students will have to attend the classes sans these subject lecturers!
Sources also said that BBM alone has about 90,000 answer scripts for valuation and there are only 200 qualified and eligible evaluators. Similar is the case with BCom. There are more than 98,000 answer scripts and the number of evaluators available is 168.
When contacted, Association of Mangalore University College Teachers (AMUCT) President Prof Ummappa Poojary too agreed that there is severe shortage of evaluators as the rule stipulates that the evaluators should have a minimum experience of 3 years in teaching and they should not be guest /part time lecturers. Unfortunately, there are very few permanent faculty in BBM stream while most of the faculty are either stop-gap lecturers or lecturers with less than 3 years of experience.
Student to suffer?
Presuming that the evaluators would complete evaluation around December 14 (for BBM), December 12 (for BCom) and December 10 (for English/Economics), the faculty would miss around 10 days, 8 days and 6 days of classes in this semester respectively. “How can we make up so many lost hours as we will have to complete the syllabus by April 1. The only option is to conduct special classes on Saturdays and Sundays, which is nothing but a burden and stress on already stressed faculty,” a faculty member told Deccan Herald and alleged that the university, despite knowing that lecturers can not attend the classes till the valuation is over, is re-opening the semester classes as they (varsity) want to complete 112 days in the semester (which is mandatory).
AMUCT also said that they have brought the issue to the notice of Vice Chancellor.
Interestingly, out of the 137 affiliated colleges coming under the Mangalore university, nearly 120 colleges have BBM course and it is one of the most sought after courses.
VC says no problem
On the other hand, when contacted, Mangalore University Vice Chancellor Prof T C Shivshankarmurthy said that the delay in valuation of answer scripts will not affect much to the students as there are many temporary lecturers (who are ineligible for valuation) and they would take the classes. Moreover, just for the sake of Commerce, the university can not postpone the semester as all other faculty have completed their valuation and they will be idle.
At the same time, the university will have to declare 4 to 5 days holiday in January during the National Youth Festival scheduled between January 12 and 16, he said.
Another teacher on condition of annonymity said that if the university postpones the re-opening of semester, then they will have to postpone the exams which in turn will affect re-opening of next semester! And the problem continues.