Maharashtra State Board to pilot on-screen marking, digital paper delivery in June-July session
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) also implemented an OSM system for the first time this year.
Currently, 997 candidates have registered for the supplementary Geography examination in the Pune district. (File Photo) The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will pilot an On-Screen Marking (OSM) system and a digital question paper delivery system in the June-July class 10 supplementary board examination. The pilot will be carried out for the geography paper across all 24 centres in Pune district, MSBSHSE Chairperson Trigun Kulkarni told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
“The question papers will be sent in an encrypted digital format and the answer sheets will be scanned and sent for on-screen marking. The encrypted question paper will be sent a couple of hours before the exam, which will then be printed at the exam centre itself,” Kulkarni said.
The current process to print question papers lasts for over a month, said Kulkarni. The papers are sent from the headquarters of the state board to the printing press. After the printing process at the press, bundles of question papers would be physically sent to divisional headquarters of the state board, and then finally sent to the respective examination centres.
“This process involved a lot of human intervention and the chances for leaks increased,” Kulkarni remarked. Cases like Sangola and Solapur in March this year where 50 papers were stolen from a school strongroom a day before the exam, would be eliminated by this process of digital paper delivery, he said.
Currently, 997 candidates have registered for the supplementary Geography examination in the Pune district.
Appointment of the OSM vendor and digital paper delivery is currently in process at MSBSHSE. The printing of the question papers at examination centres will be done in presence of state board officials under ‘AI-enabled’ CCTV cameras, Kulkarni added. The printers will be provided by the state board.
Kulkarni said that along with the digital delivery, the papers will also be sent to these centres in the traditional way as a safer alternative during the pilot project.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) also implemented an OSM system for the first time this year. CBSE’s process has faced a lot of criticism due to serious problems like mismatched answer sheets. Responding to these concerns, Kulkarni said, “I will not comment on any other board. The State Board system will be developed well. Whatever is required will be done and it will be ensured that there are no mistakes.”
If successful, the OSM and digital paper delivery systems will be implemented statewide in the February-March session in 2027. Kulkarni said, “We plan to declare results by April 15 next year. OSM marking, and corrections in many processes will make this possible. This time, there were 70000 mistakes in mark totalling, which had to be corrected and took a lot of time. We will send out written instructions and prevent this wastage of time.”
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