SSLC Board's mandatory norm ups evaluators' attendance

The number of evaluators who undertook this year’s Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) evaluations saw a considerable increase from previous years, according to the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB).

The Board had made attendance of evaluators mandatory from this year and absence a ‘dereliction of duty,’ giving more scope for disciplinary action by the KSEEB. This, according to the KSEEB director, is the reason for the less percentage of absence this year. Even though actions like suspension and cut in the yearly increment were imposed earlier, this new measure was aimed at giving the existing rules more strength.

“Only 10 per cent of the evaluators were absent this time. It is indeed a marked improvement from previous years”, said KSEEB Director Venkateshiah. 

During the previous years, evaluators regularly flouted the rules and the rate of absenteeism hovered around 30 per cent. The absenteeism was a great source of headache for the Board, leading to delay in the results as well as overburdening of the evaluators who turned up. This, in turn, caused discord between them and the Board.

The rural areas saw more attendance of evaluators than cities, according to H K Manjunath, president of the Karnataka State High School Masters’ Association.

“In North Karnataka for example, the attendance of evaluators was almost 100 per cent, whereas in cities like Mangalore, Mysore and Bangalore, the attendance was less. However, it was higher than the previous years in these places,” said Manjunath.

The KSEEB director, however, highlighted the fact that this new norm had been somewhat blunted due to the elections.

“We are in a situation where we cannot take any action against absentee evaluators because of their election duties. For example, if we suspend an evaluator, chances are that he might use this to be absent even from election duty,” he said.

“We may not be able to fully impose the strict punishment for absentee teachers this time. However, we will do so next year,” said the director.