NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday announced that it was slashing the re-evaluation fee drastically to facilitate easier access to them for students.
This is in light of a major controversy which erupted following the declaration of the CBSE Class 12 results on May 13. With the new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system adopted for the evaluation of answer sheets, thousands of students felt they ended up with lesser marks than expected. The overall pass percentage too fell from 88.39% to 85.2% this year.
In a hurriedly convened press meet at Kartavya Bhavan addressed by the school education secretary Sanjay Kumar, and CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh, the ministry sought to allay anxieties pertaining to the new marking system and repeatedly asserted it was superior to the physical marking system done on paper all these years. The OSM system was adopted earlier in 2014 but was shelved due to technical infrastructure issues.
The Secretary said, “If students wish to view their answer sheets, they can do so now by paying a fee of Rs 100 instead of Rs700. If they want verification or validation of the mark sheet, that will cost Rs 100 instead of `500. If they want any particular answer rechecked, the fee will be Rs 25 per question (it was Rs 100 earlier).”
He added that if the student’s score in the paper shows an increase after re-evaluation, then the fee paid for the process will be reimbursed.
Singh said students can apply for the re-evaluation between May 19 and 22. To gain access to individual queries, they can apply from May 26 to May 29. “If there is a demand after these windows specified conclude, we will consider that too.”
Batting for the OSM, Kumar said that over 98 lakh answer sheets were scanned and three levels of scrutiny were followed. “More than 13,000 answer sheets could not be scanned due to light ink. Hence, the examiners were asked to evaluate them manually.”
Rahul questions Centre’s silence on NEET irregularities
Reiterating his demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in connection with NEET irregularities, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked Prime Minister Modi why the minister had not been sacked despite repeated paper leaks during his tenure. In a post on X, Gandhi also questioned the Prime Minister’s “silence” on the matter.