It's been more than 40 days since the biggest farce in MBBS exams was perpetrated by the wise men and women of Mumbai University. On January 25 the university did what no university in the state, perhaps even in the country, did: revised the results of the entire batch of 963 MBBS final year students. The excuse: some questions in the preventive and social medicine paper were difficult. So the university granted eight grace marks, across the board. Never before have results been revised after being declared and no rule or act permits grant of more than five grace marks. As if that was not enough transgression, the university chose to drop the asterix that denotes ``passed with grace marks'' from the marksheets of students who directly benefited from the grace marks. Express Newsline broke the story on January 29 and others followed soon after. Health Minister Daulatrao Aher ordered an inquiry by the Medical Council of Maharashtra which in its interim report has categorically said the grant of grace markswas illegal. That was on February 4. Logically, the final report should have been out by now. Far from it. The enquiry has been stalled because the university has disputed the right of MMC to summon its officers to depose before it and the game of power and intrigue to scuttle the enquiry has begun in right earnest. As of now there are 64 students who are holding marksheets they don't deserve and hundreds of others who passed legally but will be unfairly upped by some of the former in future competitive courses. If at all the full truth of why and who decided to change the results will come out is anybody's guess. The one person who need not guess is, of course, Governor P C Alexander who is the Chancellor of the university. But for some reason he has maintained a studied silence. He has not responded to four verbal requests for interview and not replied to a detailed questionnaire faxed to him on March 5. Worse, he asked for a report on the issue from the very same person who is in the thick of things:
Vice-Chancellor Snehalata Deshmukh! He has sought legal opinion on whether the MMC is empowered to inquire into the matter, willy nilly becoming a party to the efforts at diverting the issue: from the legal one of whether the university has overreached itself to a jurisdictional one. Not that the Chancellor does not have the best of state's education at heart. On September 15, 1998, he very skillfully articulated what was wrong with professional education in the state. The occasion was the engineers day organised by the PWD & Irrigation departments at Mumbai and so he spoke specifically about engineering, but his concerns were general. Given below are highlights of that speech juxtaposed with the many questions from Express Newsline that the Chancellor has chosen not to respond to. We hope that he will take definitive steps to do what only he can to overturn a patently illegal decision of the university and save medical education from manipulation and erosion of credibility.
What the Governor said ata function in Mumbai on falling standards in professional education
It was a deeply concerned Governor who addressed a select gathering in Nagpur less than six months ago. The subject: falling standards in education and a large number of failures in professional colleges.``The result is we have second-class institutions managed by third-class teachers producing fourth-class products. And that is the difficulty that lies at the bottom of our educational system,'' Dr P C Alexander declared while trying to explain how poor teaching affects educational standards.Some of his other observations were specific to the engineering discipline, since the occasion was distribution of the state government-instituted Visveswaraya awards to engineers. But his concern as Chancellor of all Universities came shining through.
``I want to share my thoughts with you,'' he told the gathering, ``of a deep concern which has captured my mind of late -- of the thorough deterioration in the lack of facilities, infrastructureand teaching capacities'' of some colleges.
His concern was heightened by the fact that some of the brainiest children from the academic system came to engineering colleges, yet these colleges showed an abysmal passing percentage. Only 15 of the 28 colleges of Mumbai University could claim a passing percentage of ten in the second semester of First Year engineering, he said.
The students are not to blame, Alexander said. ``It is the fault of the college concerned... these colleges turn out to be slaughter-houses of talent.'' Surely that concern covers medical students who are given an uncalled for largesse of eight marks in one paper?
``In my analysis of reasons, lack of infrastructure is one reason... but it can be more easily solved by giving them more money or enabling them to get more money for good workshops and laboratories. I place my finger on the main defect in our (engineering) colleges, that is lack of good teachers,'' Alexander remarked. This lacunae, he said, was probably ``the reason forbackwardness in all sectors of education in our country. We go on expanding colleges and universities... forgetting the fact that you can have excellence only if we have teachers with higher standards of excellence.''But inspite of having teachers and a vice-chancellor who decided to simply gift marks to students to make their marksheets and academic careers look excellent, Alexander has done precious little to stem the rot while dealing with Mumbai University's marks largesse.
Text of questionnaire faxed the Governor by Newsline on March 5, yet unanswered
As Chancellor of the prestigious Mumbai University, how do you react to the MBBS marks scandal? The first result of the final MBBS was declared on January 12 and second on January 25. As per the provisions of the Maharashtra University Act, which came into the existence following a lead taken by you, there is no provision of declaring a second result for modifying the finally declared result. Under such circumstances, is it legalto declare a second result ? When inquiries were made in your office, it was stated that the Chancellor has sought a status report from Vice-Chancellor. Is it proper to seek a report from a person against whom specific allegations have been made? Do you think an independent inquiry should have been ordered?The university stated that eight grace marks were granted to students since they were unable to attend the question paper in preventive and social medicine. Can the University or the board of examinations grant grace marks even after the final results are declared? Under what provisions of the Maharashtra University Act was the second MBBS result declared? It is alleged that the grace marks were granted for the benefit of a few favoured students. There is substance in the allegation since the grace marks do not reflect in the marklist given to the students. How you react to such gracing pattern? In their depositions before the Maharashtra Medical Council, all thepaper setters as well as examination convenors said that the paper was simple and that it was not out of syllabus. Will you take cognisance of these depositions? Do you think that granting grace marks in such a manner will set a bad precedent and damage the prestige of Mumbai University? The Karnataka High Court had recently held that granting grace marks was bad. What cognisance have you taken of the order the High Court? On the directions of Health Minister Daulatrao Aher, the Maharashtra Medical Council has conducted an in-depth inquiry into the marks episode. A copy of the report has also been submitted to your office. Have you taken note of the report?Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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