PANJIM: The Goa Board of
Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) has decided to go back to its
traditional method of correcting answer sheets of students appearing for the
board exams, thus replacing digital evaluation introduced last year.
Board Secretary Shivkumar
Jangam confirmed that answer sheets of students appearing for Class XII and
Class X exams in March and April respectively will be corrected manually. “We
are not going for digital correction this year. All the answer sheets will be
corrected manually as it is more convenient and authenticated,” he told Herald.
The GBSHSE had tied up with
IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to introduce the new concept, despite
protests from certain section of teachers. As
a pilot project in 2015, part of the correction process for Class XII and Class
X supplementary exams was computerized. The same process was applied during the
2015-16 Board exams when majority papers underwent digital correction. The
officials had refused to bog down to the demands of the teachers but was marred
with allegations of faulty correction.
The
institution launched an inquiry into one such incident when a Class XII
Commerce topper was replaced by another after re-evaluation. Several students
who had applied for re-evaluation of papers scored marks higher than what was
declared originally. Some students gained marks in single digits while others
retained their original marks. Chairman J Rebello had asserted that it was a
normal trend but ordered an inquiry into the episode.
Under
the new process, the teachers were trained before taking up the task last
academic year. A panel of TCS experts was present at the time of the correction
process.
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As many as 16, 913 HSSC
students will appear for the Board exams scheduled to begin from March 1 across
16 centres. The GBSHSE has added a new centre at Mashem – Canacona owing to
increase in the number of candidates. The total number of students appearing
this academic year is over 1,000 more than last year. The 2015-16 academic year
saw 15,410 students enrolled for the Class XII exams of which 13,885 cleared
the exams. The year saw an impressive and highest ever 90.10 pass percentage, superseding
preceding year’s 88.10 overall percentage.
