BHUBANESWAR:With less than a month left for Plus Two examination to begin, delay on the part of State Government in finalising details for e-evaluation has left many, including officials of Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), worried.
Though it was decided that Science answer sheets would be e-evaluated, tender for the project is yet to be floated. Only a letter of intent from interested parties in the project has been called for, so far. On Saturday, the parties gave their presentations to the 12-member e-evaluation committee formed by the Higher Education Department. Those would be studied and a tender floated, sources said.
According to the proposal, the new process will be on the lines of Central Board of Secondary Education’s e-evaluation process that comprises on-screen marking solution.
CHSE Chairman Basudev Chatoi said he would agree for the digital marking system only if the agency that would be assigned the job assures of an error-free scanning, uploading of answer sheets and totalling of marks.
“We cannot afford blunders in evaluation of answer sheets like last year. The agency has to have a brilliant track record of implementing similar projects and assure us of an error-free job, or else the Council will not go ahead with digital marking,” Chatoi said.
Since training of teachers in digital marking system requires time, the CHSE officials said shifting to a new system immediately might not be feasible.
As far as the process is concerned, the answer books would be given to the software provider in sealed covers. The answer sheets would be scanned and uploaded for evaluation by the teachers who will be trained in the use of the software.
In terms of totalling and revaluation, the system has its advantage. The digital marking will rule out the possibility of wrong totalling as the system will reject evaluation in that case. If one question is left unmarked, evaluators cannot move to next section.
Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahy, however, said all measures will be put in place by the Department for digital evaluation of Science answer scripts. Tender for the project will be finalised by February 21 and training of teachers will begin accordingly. “Uploading of the answer sheets will be done two days after the Science examinations are over,” he told this paper.
As many as 94,952 science students will take the test and for this, 3600 teachers need to be trained. At least 3,71,920 students will appear for the Plus Two examinations in all the three streams.