CBSE talks tough on evaluation errors

BHUBANESWAR: Following allegations of large-scale errors in evaluation of answer sheets during last year’s Class X and XII board exams, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to take stringent action against evaluators and have warned they may be expelled for being careless.
CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathi said, “Our aim is to make the evaluation process error-free. We have engaged the best and most experienced teachers for evaluation and issued fresh guidelines apart from conducting several rounds of training to eliminate common mistakes done by teachers. Besides, there will be CCTV surveillance in evaluation centres.”

Sources said following re-evaluation, marks in more than 70% of the answer sheets had increased last year. “But there are many who do not apply for re-evaluation or seek photo copy of their answer sheets. They become victims of the neglect of evaluators, which we want to prevent,” added Tripathi, who was here to attend a meeting of principals of Bhubaneswar region which includes states of Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

He said, usually there should be a variation of 7% in the scores given by different evaluators, but unfortunately the variation found is much more.

“Though we have provided marking scheme — a guideline for evaluating the answer sheets — but teachers have also been given liberty to give marks for creative and innovative answers,” he added.

During training, teachers were trained on spot evaluation, real-time evaluation and conduct of examination. The CBSE had threatened all its affiliated schools of penalty and de-affiliation if they do not send teachers to take part in the evaluation process. “We had imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on schools not sending their teachers for evaluation,” Tripathi said.

There are more than 20,000 schools affiliated to CBSE across the country and around 30 lakh students appear for the Class X and XII board exams every year.