Sharing Answer Sheets of CBSE Must be Mandatory

Faulty evaluation and tabulation of answer sheets is a worry that cannot be discounted. Education experts, parents, students, and even school principals, feel that one lasting and effective solution for this is to make the evaluated answer papers accessible in a password protected digital format to all students.

Imagine the ordeal of a youngster who is told he has obtained 58 marks in mathematics when in reality his efforts have earned him 90. This is an example of many because of shoddy evaluation or mark tabulation recorded year after year. Such a discrepancy in marks is almost criminal when even half a percentage can rob a student of a seat in the desired university for the desired course. This might well alter the course of the student’s academic destiny.

The school education’s stakeholders are now veering to the idea of all answer scripts being available to students in digitized form. Students are given back their answer sheets after most school tests. It is even compulsory in some schools and parents are asked to sign them. It is very ironical that at a level where seeing the answer sheet actually makes a difference, they are afforded the chance only through a paid process. Yashwant Singh Negi, principal of Government Boys’ Senior Secondary School, Ghitorni said that not everyone can afford to pay the extra amount. The students already pay an examination fee. 50% of students of class XIIth CBSE got more marks when asked for a re-evaluation. With children getting to see their papers, one can ensure the accountability of the examiner who is assessing the paper and make it easier to determine where the mistake occurred.

Ashok Agarwal, lawyer, Right to Education activist and head of the All India Parents’ Association, said that if all answer papers are accessible, there will be a dramatic improvement in the evaluation process. Though digitizing lakhs of papers can be a tedious process, it isn’t impossible and it's necessary. CBSE, however, considers this a waste of resources.

According to an evaluator of CBSE exams, CBSE uploaded the answer scripts 3-4 years ago of the economics and English papers online after the evaluation was done “on screen”. The two papers demonstrate that the possibility of making all answer sheets available in digital format to the students can be explored.

By: Preeti Narula

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