DC Edit | CBSE Chaos: Govt Must Step In
This has come after several thousands of them felt that they got much lower marks than what they had expected leading to a disaster in their academic lives as these marks could impact their admissions in the graduate programmes
Students who wrote the Class 12 examination of the Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) had long completed their part of the job but are being made to run from one website to another to ensure that the answers have been properly evaluated and marks granted. This has come after several thousands of them felt that they got much lower marks than what they had expected leading to a disaster in their academic lives as these marks could impact their admissions in the graduate programmes. If social media responses are an indication, then even those who have cleared tough and highly competitive entrance tests have fallen behind in their Class 12 examination!
There can be many a slip that made a mess of a normal, routine affair: the newly-introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM), uninformed students, the technical glitches that failed to cover the shortcomings and faulty processes that followed but the real villain in the piece are the callous, irresponsible and inefficient CBSE authorities and the Union government which failed to intervene in time and set things right. OSM is a system where teachers evaluate papers scanned and sent to them in pdf format. It appears that several students who got their answer sheets found them unclear, which they believe could have stopped the teachers from evaluating them properly and granting the marks due to them.
It is shocking that neither the Board nor the government found it exigent enough to intervene; instead, the issue has become worse than before after students who attempted to apply for revaluation found one too many glitches: difficulty in accessing the portal, website crashes and payment gateway failure. They also found the charges for revaluation too high, often running into thousands of rupees.
The government must step in at least now. It must marshal all the technical resources at its command and help the students complete the process. It must extend the time for applying for revaluation and scrap the fee. Most importantly, the government must identify what caused the glitches and ensure that those who played with the future of the students are made to pay for their indiscretion.