Nagpur University members want Promarc ousted from online exams

Nagpur: Even after Amravati University (AU) blacklisted Promarc Software Limited for inept handling of its online exams, the top brass of Nagpur University (NU) continues to shield the firm despite a series of technical blunders.
According to officials as well as past and present statutory members, even Gondwana University (GU) discontinued its seven-year contract with the Nagpur firm for “pathetic service”.
Officials disclosed that even a tender wasn’t floated before the contract for the MCQ tests was awarded to the firm which operates from Ramdaspeth. As a result, NU’s experiment with online exams turned out to be a big disaster with its officials and members squarely pinning the blame on the company.
A majority of over 75,000 final year students continue to face some problem or the other while appearing for the exams. Since October 8, on most days either the ‘Pariksha App’ developed by Promarc crashed or its server in Hyderabad developed snags forcing most of the students to take a re-exam.
Even top officials, including vice chancellor Subhash Chaudhari and board of examination and evaluation (BOEE) director Prafulla Sable are facing flak for backing the software firm.
Refuting allegations, a senior Promarc official told TOI that AU blacklisted the firm without any official communication. The firm will challenge AU’s move in court as its Rs50,000 deposit was also seized.
“Show us any university which isn’t facing problems in online exams. Even reputed ones like Mumbai and Pune are facing several technical glitches and their exams are being rescheduled. Not a single company which is conducting MCQ exams online for the first time has been successful. In fact, NU has managed to successfully conduct most of its exams,” said the official.
Defending Promarc, BOEE director Sable said NU didn’t face any major difficulty and hence, the issue of terminating the company’s contract does not arise. “All universities are facing technical glitches. In fact, NU’s position is far better than the others. We did have some difficulties and exams were cancelled, but we successfully re-conducted them with the help of the firm. Since such exams are being held for the first time, problems are bound to occur,” he said.
The Promarc official added that the entire procedure, right from developing the app to conducting the exams, was being carried out without a penny being charged to the university. “Since NU is our alma mater, we always do our best to serve it well and that’s the reason why we don’t charge a premium for our other services. A team of 20 is in place and we need to pay them their salaries. Initially, even when we started online evaluation, we did it free of charge. NU didn’t call for a tender as it would have delayed the exams further. We had the entire data of students and so, we needed little time to complete the procedure,” he said.