CBSE valuation: Panel finds 10 per cent errors

NEW DELHI, February 22: An inquiry commission, set up to look into the Central Board of Secondary Examination's CBSE post-examination o...

NEW DELHI, February 22: An inquiry commission, set up to look into the Central Board of Secondary Examination8217;s CBSE post-examination omissions and comissions, has found large-scale discrepancies in the rechecking process.

The five-member commission, headed by Sushil Kumar, had been appointed to look into the charges of irregularities in the evaluation of answer sheets of the class 10 and 12 examination conducted in 1991. The report has said that about 10 per cent mistakes were found in 19,000 cases where students had applied for rechecking.

Along with the discrepancies, the report has also made several suggestions, including the need for re-evaluation as opposed to rechecking and a grievance redressal machinery.

Describing the rechecking process as a double tragedy8217;, the 100-page report states that there were several instances where students who secured creditably high marks were awarded low marks, which were not corrected even after a recheck.

The casual approach towards calculating marks is reflected in an example where a candidate securing 60 marks in English, was shown to have obtained only 6 marks, the report points out. Similarly, in another case, a candidate who had secured 99 marks in mathematics was shown to have obtained only 28 marks.

The report said during 1991 examinations for class 10 5,555 candidates applied for rechecking out of which mistakes were found in 474 cases and 423 students were given lower marks while 51 were given higher marks. The report said mistakes were found in 420 cases out of 4,670 in which students of class 12 had applied for rechecking in the Delhi zone.

The Commission also noticed lack of accountability in secrecy work which resulted in casualness and indifference on the part of officials associated with the examination process. The report also points out that the fictitious roll numbers do not really remain secret because the last two digits of the actual and fictitious roll numbers remain the same.

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The Commission said the bungling came to light only when a large number of affected students not satisfied with the marks awarded applied for rechecking. It also reported several cases where students who had passed the exam were given a compartment and those who had a compartment were shown as having failed. The report states that even though this error was detected before the marks were posted, the CBSE went ahead with it, as they assumed that these students would ask for rechecking.