With the Education ministry roping in experts from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to help with technical glitches in the Class XII digital evaluation system of the CBSE, we caught up with Professor V Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras and Padma Shri awardee, to understand the issues and the way ahead:
The On-Screen Marking System (OSM) for evaluation of answer sheets was adopted by the CBSE in 2014 but given up later due to technical infrastructure issues. After 12 years, it has been reintroduced and has stumbled into major issues. Is there a problem with the digital system itself?
We have the necessary technical infrastructure now. While glitches have occurred, we cannot demean everything the CBSE has done so far. The initial teething problems will always be there. The OSM is superior to physical evaluation.
Firstly, it removes bias as the teacher does not know which student has written it. Secondly, the best teachers can be selected for evaluation. The CBSE has selected around 77,000 experienced teachers. The students get the best evaluators to assess their answers. Thirdly, the teacher is free from any influence of the previous marking. In the case of physical correction, the teacher is aware of the previous marks and this could influence the awarding of marks. In a digital evaluation, the teacher is evaluating the paper afresh. And fourthly, this is a public exam. The parents can see what the student has written when viewing the answer scripts later.
I’ll share my personal experience: I lost one mark in my Class XII CBSE Maths exam in 1985 and got 99 out of 100. Even today, that thought haunts me as I really wanted to score a centum. Today, a student can easily find out where they lost their marks.
Do you suspect there has been a cyber attack on the portal?
We really do not know. Payment was not going through in the bank’s process. There could have been denial of service; when there is a sudden surge in traffic, the response slows down.
What is the feedback that the IIT teams are giving?
That is confidential and will be submitted directly to the Education ministry. IIT Madras has sent two faculty members well-versed with such large scale operations. Our people have rectified the glitches and the trial tests turned out fine.
Does IIT Madras have experience of handling such a huge number?
We handle the Svayam portal where more than 1.5 million students log in every year. We have 2.5 lakh people who apply for our online Data Science course every year. Our priority is to ensure that the anxiety of students and parents is reduced by starting the re-evaluation process at the earliest.