The Hindu | THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | November 28, 2015 | |
All examinations of the A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) — which run on an online platform — would switch to open source software from the second semester onwards. For the first semester examinations, the KTU would use a proprietary, Microsoft, software. In response to demands from student organisations, the KTU has pushed back its first semester examinations by two days. The first of the examinations would now begin on December 4 instead of December 2. The first of the results would be published on December 19.
The examination system of the KTU had come in for criticism from employees’ organisations and students’ organisations, which accused the university of outsourcing the examinations to private firms. KTU Pro Vice Chancellor M. Abdul Rahman told The Hindu that only the hardware and software components of the examination system have been outsourced. “Our examination platform requires software that only three companies in India currently have. We floated tenders wherein these three companies took part and the contract was awarded to the most competitive of costs. It was an 11-member expert committee that designed the tender and evaluated the bids. All this is available for scrutiny on the IT Mission website,” Dr. Rahman explained. For purposes of examinations, the KTU has set up a control room in each engineering college. It is at this centre that question papers would be printed on the day of the examination. It is also at this control room that the answer booklets would be scanned and uploaded to the KTU server. Two personnel from the private company would do the printing and scanning under the supervision of the college principal and an external supervisor. From the next semester examinations onwards the KTU plans to entrust this task also to personnel from a public sector enterprise. – Courtesy
