MUMBAI: Uncertainty looms over when Mumbai University exam results will be announced as the process of onscreen assessment of answersheets failed to take off on Saturday. For, the university again failed to get minimum three bidders for the third party service provider for the assessment. The final bidding will now be opened on April 27.However, vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh is convinced there will not be any delay in results. "Challenges are everywhere. Operational time for such time-tested method is less than one third of the time taken for manual assessment. There is no question of delay," said Deshmukh.Registrar M A Khan said, "The agency is likely to be finalised on April 27. The university will also ensure that delays in post-assessment work is curtailed to ensure results are announced at the earliest."However, once the process starts, installing scanners and scanning close to seven crore pages will itself take about 15 days. Principals claim that at the current rate, assessment is unlikely to start before May 15. Besides, they pointed out teething problems, comfortability of teachers in using computers and non-availability of teachers during vacation.Meanwhile, a meeting of the Board of Examinations (BoE) on Saturday decided that training for 9,500 teachers will commence on Monday as scheduled. But since no agency has been finalised, the university has asked independent professionals to conduct the training. However, the training process too seems to be riddled with problems. A teacher saids the training clashes with some exams in self-financed programmes, which they are expected to invigilate.Consequently, principals are worried of the effect that the potential delay will have on next year's admissions. "Delay in results is a regular feature of MU. We will have to wait and watch what this year has in store," a principal said.Meanwhile, some teachers claimed that those teaching for Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) have started manual assessment of papers on instructions from the university's board. A teacher said, "The decision for manual assessment was taken long ago. Most papers from repeaters' exams have been assessed. At least two bundles of the final semester exams have already been assessed by many teachers," said a teacher. Khan, however, said the entire process has been stalled and there has been some miscommunication with the BMM faculty members, and papers will be recalled from the CAP (centralised assessment process) centres.

Stay updated with all the Mumbai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.