BHUBANESWAR: Protest against alleged discrepancies in evaluation of CBSE Class XII answer sheets intensified on Wednesday even as two senior officials of the Board arrived at Bhubaneswar to probe the matter following a direction from Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.
Chaos prevailed at the regional office of CBSE as agitating students shouted slogans when Deputy Director DK Goyal and Examination Controller KK Choudhary from New Delhi entered the office for verification of answer-sheets and other documents. The CBSE officials were, however, mum over alleged anomalies during evaluation.
The agitation escalated after a number of affected students from Chhattisgarh and West Bengal joined the protest started by their Odisha counterparts. They demanded action against erring officials for playing with lives of thousands of students. They also submitted applications for rechecking and securing copy of answer sheets.
Several students from the neighbouring States said, they were contemplating to join the Odisha Abhibhabaka Mahasangha and file petition in the High Court. What has left many students surprised is that they have scored single digit number in all subjects.
Safalata Basantia from Jeypore in Koraput district was awestruck when she saw her mark-sheet. She has scored only 3 in Mathematics, 4 in Physics and 5 in Biology. The same student who got 53 in English said she never performed so badly to secure single digit mark. Her father Dilip Kumar Basantia has been running from pillar to post to submit his application for rechecking of answer-sheets.
Rabindra Nayak of Barasat in Kolkata decided to join the protest after he was informed that Odisha Chief Minister has demanded a thorough investigation. Nayak’s daughter Chinmayee has scored 72 per cent with good scores in all subjects but she secured only 4 in Mathematics and got a compartmental. “I had expected at least 65 marks in Maths,” she said.
Odisha Abhibhabaka Mahasangha president Sudarsan Das said, at least 6,000 students in Odisha and over 20,000 students in other three States under Bhubaneswar region of CBSE have been affected by the irregularity and faulty implementation of mark modulation policy. Students wing of BJD and Congress also staged agitation against CBSE authorities. They shouted slogans and blocked Sahid Nagar main road. Student Congress leaders demanded Javdekar’s resignation over the issue.
While the probing officers chose to avoid the media, CBSE Assistant Secretary Jagabandhu Pradhan said the matter was being carefully examined. “There will be no re-evaluation of answer-sheets. Only rechecking, re-totalling and scrutiny can be done for students who apply for it. Efforts are on to complete the process within 15 days,” said Pradhan.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had sought the intervention of Javadekar after complaints against CBSE authorities started pouring in from several parts of the State for ‘faulty’ evaluation of answer sheets.