In-House Teachers For Mumbai College Exams After Harassment Row

Following the alleged harassment of female students of a city-based management institute, colleges in Mumbai have decided to include teachers from the faculty for supervision during online examinations. In some cases, proctoring can be done by college teachers along with software proctoring.

The step was considered following an outrage on social media when some students of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) took to Twitter to share screenshots of messages sent by four proctors to some female students during the online examination.

The proctors who were associated with Mercer Mettl, a firm that conducts online examinations, allegedly messaged the female students on their social media handles and harassed them. However, the four accused proctors were fired after the incident came to light. Narsee Monjee Institute has also set up a committee to investigate the allegations made by the college students.

Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College, told HT that the college has decided to conduct their online examinations with the external proctors along with in-house proctors henceforth.

Similar incidence of harassment

In a similar incident reported from a Christian organisation that preaches the Bible across missionary-run schools and churches in Tamil Nadu, an employee identified as Samuel Jaisundar was suspended for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to the female students on Instagram and Facebook. The action was taken after allegations of inappropriate conduct surfaced against him online. Read about it more here. 

Since the outbreak of a COVID-19 which led to the shutting down of schools and colleges globally, several colleges affiliated with the Mumbai University held their examinations for students under graduation via Google Forms or MS Teams while some hired technology firms to conduct exams for them.