To increase transparency, examinees can get their answers rechecked
In a significant student-friendly reform, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will now allow examinees of senior secondary exams to see their answer sheets after evaluation. Moreover, there will be another provision to get a number of questions per subject rechecked. This move comes in lieu of the rising complaints of students regarding unfair evaluation in examinations. Educationists say this will certainly ease some pressure of the students.
Chairman of CBSE Vineet Joshi said, “After the Supreme Court order last year we had started giving students photocopies of their answer sheets for reference. However, revaluation was limited to only verification of marks. But this time we have decided to let the students get their answers rechecked in order to increase transparency and authenticity. Students will have to first apply to see their answer sheets and then apply for the verification and rechecking process. All of this will be done on payment.”
He added that this will also help students realise their weaknesses. “Students won’t be able to blame the board for not marking correctly now because the answer sheets will be in front of them. They will be able to pinpoint their own shortcomings and know exactly how well they fared,” said Joshi, adding that the facility will be available with this session (2013-14).
Once the scheme is implemented, students will be able to get their set of questions re-examined for English,
Hindi, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Political Science and Economics with a cap of 10 questions per subject. According to Joshi, this will limit the students to only give subjective answers for rechecking. “Objective answers are very clear cut. It’s either right or wrong. So we don’t want that people give anything and everything for rechecking. We don’t deny anyone from getting objective answers rechecked, but we have kept a tab on the number of questions allowed for rechecking so that students focus on subjective answers mainly,” he said.
The board is planning to include other subjects in this process as well, but not now since they are still in the process of finalising the mode of delivery of the digitised answer sheets. However, they are either expected to be delivered via email or will be available for download from the board’s website.
The exact guidelines of revaluation will be out in a couple of weeks, said Joshi. “We are currently in the evaluation process. Since the results are usually out by third or fourth week of May, we should come out with these guidelines in a week or two,” he added.