Raviprasad Kamila/The Hindu

• Colleges deploy non-teaching staff as invigilators
• Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University says no complaint was received regarding this
• ‘College heads should have taken care when sending list of teachers to Election Commission’

Mangalore, May 15: The deputation of college teachers for election duty caused problems during the degree examinations on Wednesday. Many colleges affiliated to Mangalore University had to depute non-teaching employees and temporary teachers as invigilators during the English examination on Wednesday, Ummappa Poojary P., general secretary, Association of Mangalore University College Teachers (AMUCT), told The Hindu.

He said that many colleges were forced to conduct the examination in the absence of deputy chief examiners. Deputy chief examiners are teachers deputed by the university to colleges other than their own. The principal of a college has to open the sealed bundle of question papers in the presence of the deputy chief examiner. Many teachers who had been deputed as deputy chief examiners had been assigned for election duty. The Election Commission had ordered all employees assigned for election duty to compulsorily report at the designated centres on Wednesday for training.

Outstation staff had to stay overnight at the centres in order to start for the polling booths on Thursday for the elections on Friday. Mr. Poojary said that the AMUCT had appealed to the commission and the Deputy Commissioner of the district not to depute all teachers for examination duty. A teacher who had come for training said that in Puttur, a well-known college had to depend on temporary teachers from a new college to conduct the examinations.

Mr. Poojary said that examinations were also affected when all teachers were recently sent for three days of training.

M. Narahari, president, Federation of University and College Teachers’ Associations in Karnataka (FUCTAK) said that as this had been brought to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner in advance he could have held a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor to avoid the problem. K.M. Kaveriappa, Vice-Chancellor, Mangalore University, said that the university did not receive any complaint.

The university had sent the timetable of the examinations well in advance to the colleges.

The principals of the colleges should have taken care when sending the list of teachers to the Election Commission. They should have ensured that some teachers were available for examination duty, he added.