Kannur University teachers call off evaluation boycott after VC's assurance

Kasaragod: Kannur University's teachers affiliated with the Congress-led United Democratic Front have agreed to resume evaluation of the first-semester exam papers after Vice-Chancellor Prof K K Saju heard them out and eased the workload.

Government College Teachers' Organisation (GCTO) and Kerala Private College Teachers' Association (KPCTA) said they would not evaluate papers from December 5 because the university insisted on evaluating answer sheets of 40 to 50 students per day. 

The VC extended the days of evaluation to December 12 from December 10 and removed the daily requirement, said KPCTA Kannur Regional Committee president Dr Shino P Jose.

The other key demand of the teachers was a rethink on using K-REAP (exam data management) software. "The VC heard us out and said he would look into our concerns. We agreed that changing the software in the middle of evaluation was not possible and decided to return to the evaluation camp so as not to hurt students," he said.

K-REAP or Kerala Resources for Education Administration and Planning (K-REAP) is the state government's digital project to streamline administrative and academic processes such as assigning courses to students, linking students to their respective courses, digitising internal and external marks and centralised management of these data.

However, the government sub-contracted the project to Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL), which according to these teachers' associations, has a history of data manipulation. On top of that, the software was also cumbersome to use, they said.

For now, the VC has defused the disagreement over K-REAP. But teachers said they expected an alternative software before the next semester.