Three years after digital evaluation of Plus Two answer sheets was initiated by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha, it has not been extended to all the three streams of education. Apparently, e-evaluation was started by the Higher Education Department, Odisha, to ensure zero error in correction of answer sheets.
While the process began with the science stream in 2015, digital evaluation was extended to Commerce last year but the CHSE is not sure if it can start e-evaluation in the Arts stream any time soon. During November last year, the CHSE had decided to extend e-evaluation in 2017 to the English papersin the Arts stream but it has now been cancelled as the Council lacks infrastructure and evaluators.
In 2016, as many as 2,42,993 students had appeared for the Plus Two examination in the Arts stream, 84,154 in Science and 31,707 in Commerce. The Council is expecting four lakh students to sit for the Plus Two examination this year.
“After reviewing the situation, the CHSE has decided to introduce digital evaluation for the English papers in the Arts stream and subsequently, extend it to other papers. However, the examination committee of CHSE did not give its nod to the proposal as there is a severe shortage of evaluators and infrastructure to correct a large number of papers. All Arts subjects will be brought under the e-evaluation purview in two to three years after meeting all infrastructure requirements,” said CHSE Chairman Basudev Chattoi.
Till last year, around 10,000 teachers were trained to digitally evaluate the answer papers of Science and Commerce students.
Sources in the CHSE said that there are not many colleges with adequate computer laboratory facilties in the state, which can be converted into digital evaluation zones. “This apart, electricity is a major issue. Last year, there was a short circuit in the computer laboratories in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, which delayed the correction by four days. Hence, until good computer labs can be arranged, digitally correcting the large number of answer sheets under the Arts stream is not possible,” said an examination committee official. He added that at least 5,000 additional teachers would be required for e-evaluation, which is not possible this year.