Patna, April 25: The increase in fee for evaluation of answer sheets has called for unsatisfied reactions from the teachers of the Patna University (PU).

The teachers refused to join the evaluation process as they feel that despite the hike in fee in PU, the amount is far below when compared to other universities.

The situation has gone to the extent that authorities believe that this “boycott” may delay the publication of results, as there is already a severe crunch of teachers and only a few of them are on the evaluation duty.

The teachers have been demanding a revision of evaluation fees for a long time but the decision of a revision was taken at the university senate meeting in February this year.

The teachers’ other grievances are that though the university senate has approved the hike in evaluation fee for the teachers and the non-teaching employees, the university has issued no notification till now even after the evaluation process had started.

Manoj Kumar, registrar of PU, said: “The university is in the process to issue the notification regarding the new evaluation fee structure and it will be completed in a day or two.”

The centralised evaluation of answer papers for under-graduate courses started on April 20 at Patna Women’s College while the evaluation of question papers for post-graduate courses started today at the university Senate Hall.

As approved by the senate, per copy evaluation of answer papers for undergraduate courses have been increased from Rs 8 to Rs 12, while for post-graduate courses there has been an increase of Rs 5. Earlier, per copy evaluation was Rs 10 and the new rate has been fixed at Rs 15.

Patna University Teachers’ Association general secretary, Randhir Kumar Singh said: “The university teachers and non-teaching employees have been demanding an increase in the evaluation fee for long but it was approved in the senate meeting this year, however, till now we have not received any notification from the university authorities. However, we are optimistic.”

On the other hand, apart from increase in evaluation fee, the refreshment fee has also been increased. Earlier, a teacher who was deputed on evaluation duty used to get Rs 15, but now he is entitled to get Rs 25 as refreshment fee. Moreover, there has been an increase in conveyance charges of teachers deputed on evaluation duty, too, from Rs 60 to Rs 75.

A teacher generally evaluates around 30 copies and in the process the university spends around Rs 400 to 500 on a single teacher. The PU teachers’ other demands are that despite increase in evaluation fee it is still lower compared to other universities like Magadh University and Nalanda Open University.

In Magadh University, per copy evaluation of answer papers has been fixed at Rs 16 for under-graduate courses, while at Nalanda Open University, the fee is at Rs 30.