MUMBAI: About 5,000 teachers logged in to assess University of Mumbai (MU) answer sheets through on-Screen marking (OSM) system on Monday — day one of the non-instructional days assigned by the varsity.

Last week, only 23% of the 11,807 eligible teachers reported for the online assessment work.

MU officials told HT that nearly 92,000 answer sheets were assessed on Monday, which made a huge difference to the overall evaluation process.

Based on the progress it has made so far, the varsity is likely to declare results for fine arts, engineering and science streams by July 31.

“Less than six lakh answer booklets now remain for assessment and moderation is also being conducted on the side,” said an official from the examination house, MU. On Monday, MU officials met Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, also the university’s chancellor, who reiterated July 31 as the deadline for announcement of results.

“Results for faculties with large number of students will take a while. But the work is in progress,” added the official.

To announce results at the earliest, the MU released a circular on July 20 requesting all colleges to maintain non-instructional days for BCom faculty so that teachers could focus on assessing answer sheets for three days.

On July 23, another circular was released asking all faculties of degree colleges to remain shut from Monday to Thursday to speed up the assessment work.

While the circular to all degree students was issued on a Sunday, most colleges got it on Monday. To abide by the circular, several colleges have given leaves to professors teaching third-year students.

“There is no point in giving holidays to everyone because only the third-year teachers need to go for assessment duty. We have declared a holiday for third-year BMS and BSc-IT students from Tuesday to Thursday,” said Anju Kapoor, principal of UPG College, Vile Parle.

Most principals are worried that the holiday will affect completion of syllabus for all the batches.

“This week’s teaching plan will be affected, and next month we have a five-day holiday for Ganesh festival. Our teachers will have to work extra hours to make up for time lost and finish the portion,” said another principal of a Malad college.