Mumbai: While the Mumbai University (MU) has assured of a smooth assessment procedure in the ongoing winter-term examinations, several teachers have alleged technical glitches in the on-screen marking (OSM) system, which is the online assessment system. The teachers have claimed that Internet speed is the main reason behind the delays.

The teachers have further claimed that downloading answer papers from the system to the screen in order to assess them is error-prone due to the "load" on the system. However, the controller of examinations and evaluation, Dr Arjun Ghatule, told this newspaper that the entire assessment has been smooth as they have not received any major complaints from any CAP centres.

A senior professor of the MU said, "Maybe they have improved their standard compared to the last summer-term examinations but our point is do you want to make your students suffer again like they did last time. If not each and every teacher, a majority of teachers is going through various types of trouble at their CAP centres."

She said that the glitches in the computer of system depended on the load each CAP centre was carrying. "Examiners are the main people suffering due to this problem as they are the ones in-charge-of downloading answer sheets and allotting them to the teachers to assess," she said.

Another teacher said that instead of focusing on reducing glitches, the varsity should try to make the system free of glitches. “We are not against the MU introducing the online system. It is for the good of all students and teachers. However, what is the point if it has so many glitches?” the teacher said. Nagendran Sundararajan, executive vice president and spokesperson of MeritTrac, which is the software service provider for the OSM system, told this newspaper that MeritTrac does not wish to comment on the matter.