HYDERABAD: Despite burning the midnight oil for months, the efforts of 5,315 intermediate students will perhaps not bear fruit due to a goof-up by TSBIE and Globarena Technologies, according a report submitted by the three-member panel, headed by GT Venkateshwar Rao.
According to the report, as many as 4,288 students from the MEC stream got mark sheets that showed that they secured marks in single digits in mathematics. For 496 students, their mark sheet showed ‘AP’ where the marks should have been displayed instead. In another 531 cases, the marks for the practical exam were missing from the document altogether.
The committee, in its 10-page report, has attributed these mistakes “to the inadequacies in the design and implementation of the application”, placing the onus on both TSBIE and Globarena Technologies.
The committee found that all modules were delayed in their delivery. In fact, the result-processing part of the application was not ready even in December 2018, it said.“The biggest mistake is that the results-processing module was not benchmarked against a set of results published the previous year,” the report notes.
This was further aggravated by the fact there was no mechanism to detect timely systemic errors. A proper system for monitoring project implementation and quality for work done by Globarena was absent. “The EDP team formed to oversee the project was sent back to its original department in June 2018. Both TSBIE and Globarena did not follow a standard operating procedure for most activities,” said the report, adding that the planning and management of the TSBIE was inadequate and their approach was “always reactionary, always dealing with problems as and when they had come up.”
This can be assessed from the fact that even the software requirement specification document of Globarena was not approved by the Board, it added.
It also found that mock testing of modules were not done before release. In fact, in October 2018 when the project suffered a major setback, TSBIE sought an explanation from the tech firm but their response was not satisfactory. Yet TSBIE chose to continue working with the firm.
‘No contract between TSBIE, Globarena’
The report also pointed that no contract had been signed between the Intermediate Board and Globarena, the private agency hired by it. The agency was hired to develop and maintain a software application, incorporating various modules. The work included both pre-exam and post-exam work. Development of this software was riddled with delays, caused because of the board as well as the private agency that were important factors behind the trouble and anxiety being faced by students and parents across the State.
The committee, in its report, mentioned that the private agency did not develop the required application on time and did not follow the timeline as mandated by the work order. It also mentions: “The delays as well as the flaws are attributable to both the technical agency(Globarena) as well as TSBIE.”The report also mentioned: “Even after taking so much time the final software application developed by the private agency was found riddled with flaws.”