Many do not know what will happen to the answer scripts of SSLC exams after the announcement of results. The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) makes money out of these papers by selling them.
According to the data available with KSEEB, the old answer scripts have fetch ed over `60 lakh to it in the last four years. Every year, 8.5 lakh candidates appear for the SSLC exams and that brings out a huge number of answer scripts, which is over 50 lakh per exam.
The board will preserve these scripts for four months after the announcement of results. This is the reason why the board insists to ask for answer papers under the RTI Act, within four months of the announcement of the results.
“The answer scripts are very confidential and we cannot dispose them of within the State. We insist on the agencies to dispose the scripts outside the State,” said a senior official.
As per the documents, KSEEB spends around Rs 23 crore for exams every year. The exam fee it collects per candidate is `350 and there is no fee for girl students, SC/ST and other BC students. The board is an autonomous body and the government just pays its staff’s salaries. It has to maintain other expenses on its own.
The tender process for selling answer scripts of the March-April and June 2013 exams is on. To attract bidders across the country,the board is registered with MSTC, a Union government agency.