CUTTACK: Evaluation of matriculation papers went underway today with the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) making sweeping changes in the process to make it foolproof.
The Board for the first time has introduced a two-tier system of evaluation with the answer-sheets going through a stage of cross-checking to eliminate the possibilities of errors in correction.
Every evaluation centre has been assigned with a Chief Examiner with three deputy chief examiners under him. The deputy chief examiners would verify the answer-sheets marked and passed by the assistant examiners for any mistakes that could have crept in during evaluation.
Each centre has 18 assistant examiners with six each assigned to a particular set of answer-sheets. The question papers for the examinations are divided into three sets. An examiner can evaluate a maximum of 20 papers a day.
“The deputy chief examiners would be subject teachers of the same papers that the papers are evaluated for. Earlier junior teachers were assigned the job of scrutinising the papers post-evaluation by the examiners. It was observed that the work was not up to the mark with mistakes going unnoticed. By assigning subject teachers, the work would be more effective,” BSE president Satyakam Mishra said.
The major errors during evaluation have come across as wrong addition of marks in the cover page, giving nil marks against correct answers in short questions, casual marking in long questions, not giving attention to answers by students who have given correct answers but have not written down the question number and unvalued answers too. “The deputy chief examiners would pay attention to all details like cross-checking the addition of marks in the cover sheet, looking for unvalued answers, errors in giving marks as well as take into account abnormal marking in long questions,” Mishra said.
The Board has come in for sharp criticism over the years for recurrent deficiencies in evaluation. For the last couple of years, the toppers list has come under scrutiny with the ranks shifting among students following rechecking of papers.
As many as 70 examination centres engaging about 18,200 examiners have been set up across the State. The evaluation would continue for about a fortnight. Results of examinations would be announced in June.