Lack of Expertise Hits SEBA & AHSEC To Adopt ‘On Screen Marking’ (OSM) System

GUWAHATI: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) and the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) do not have infrastructures and expertise to adopt ‘On Screen Marking’ (OSM) system to ensure accuracy in evaluation of answer scripts.

Such a situation is prevailing in SEBA and AHSEC despite the fact that the 47th annual conference of Council of Boards of School Education in India (COBSE) held in Guwahati last year resolved to adopt the OSM system. Both the State education boards had given their commitments to implement the new evaluation system.

Under the OSM system, the answer scripts of HSLC and HS examinations will be scanned, uploaded centrally and then downloaded at the evaluation centres online. Teachers will be given a user-ID through which they could access and download the batch of answer scripts assigned to them for evaluation. The OSM will be developed in such way that the answer scripts cannot be submitted to the head examiner in case there is any portion that is not assessed or there is an unmarked answer on the students’ scripts. Under such circumstances there will no chances of leaving any question unassessed and candidates will not be deprived from getting their deserving marks.

“While most of the other State boards are fast creating infrastructures to implement the OSM system, the SEBA and the AHSEC are still clueless as to how to adopt such a modern evaluation methodology,” a source in Education department said.

Besides laying stress on the use of innovation and modern technology in the process of conduct of examination, the last year’s COBSE conference had suggested that the education boards must make efforts to keep question paper packets in the custody of government agencies like banks, post offices and treasuries. Besides videography and CCTV cameras in sensitive examination centres, the conference also mooted use of mobile phone jammers in some centres to ensure fair conduct of the examination.

“Some of the suggestions have already been implemented by the SEBA and the AHSEC,” the source said.

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