Kannur: Rolling out the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP), Kannur University is stumbling through testing times. Last month, students sat in exam halls for 30 minutes before being told the university hadn't sent the question papers.

Now, on the first day of centralised valuation camps for the second semester, teachers arrived to find there were no answer sheets to grade.

After being informed just four days ago, teachers cut short the vacation to reach eight valuation camps across Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod by 9.30 am on Thursday. "We waited over an hour, but no answer sheets arrived. Neither was there any intimation from the university," said Dr Vijesh Nambisan, a chemistry teacher at Payyannur College. He and 14 colleagues chose St Joseph’s College, Pilathara, in Kannur, as their valuation centre.

"The answer sheets, question papers and answer keys should’ve reached the valuation centres a day earlier. If the university could not send them, it should have informed the chairpersons of the board of examinations for each subject so that we could have avoided this trip," said Dr Nambisan, who lives in Mangaluru.

A Hindi teacher arrived from Alappuzha to evaluate papers, only to discover there were no answer sheets. Worse, the camp officer, an employee of the university, did not allow the teachers to mark their attendance. "We signed in an old register used during the valuation of papers of the sixth semester," Dr Nambisan said.

Kerala Private College Teachers' Association's Kannur regional president, Johnson George, said the university was erring in conducting exams because it did not have a full-time Controller of Examinations. For a long time, Registrar Prof Joby K Jose has been standing in as the Controller of Examinations.

At night, Prof Jose issued a circular postponing the valuation camp to May 13. It said the papers could not be delivered at the valuation camps because of the delay in marking false numbers on answer sheets.
The registrar also asked teachers to treat the day as a paper discussion session to claim the valuation fee. To be sure, teachers are expected to evaluate 30 to 35 papers every day.

Teachers have summer vacation in April and May. "We lost our April vacation because of exams. Now we are losing out on our May vacation because of hurriedly planned valuation camps," said KPCTA state president Dr Premachandran Keezhoth.

Dr Nambisan said that when he joined in 2013, Kannur University gave 20-30 days’ notice for valuation camps. "That way, we could plan our vacations. We have teachers from all 14 districts. Now we’re told about camps just three or four days in advance. Even then, they can’t conduct them properly," he said.