CBSE slashes class 12 board exam revaluation fees to Rs 100; full refund in case erroneous marking

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sudnay announced the slashing of fees for revaluation of Class 12 board exam answer sheets.

This comes after several concerns were raised about the On-Screen Marking system (OSM) done for the first time during the recently conducted exams.

Secondary Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar on Sunday announced that answer sheet verification charges will be slashed to Rs 100 for request of scanned copies and verification from Rs 700 and Rs 500, respectively. If marking is found to be erroneous, children will be refunded the fees. 

In a press conference Kumar, alongside CBSE Chairperson Rahul Singh and CBSE Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj, said that 98 lakh answer papers were scanned to PDFs and went through three levels of security. They said that only 13,000 papers found to be illegible and were marked manually.

Earlier, the CBSE had levied a fee of Rs 700 to students to access the answer sheets, and Rs 500 to re-evaluate. Further, Rs 100 was being charged to re-evaluate a single question.

Kumar said that now, students will have to pay Rs 100 to access the sheets, Rs 100 to revaluate and Rs 25 to check an answer.

“During the scanning process, three levels of security were maintained. This was necessary because while scanning, it had to be ensured that the quality of scanning is proper and that no page is missed in the process, and that the scanning had to be complete as well as legible. After this process, the security coding and numbering of the answer sheets were checked so that the answer sheets could be sent anywhere securely,” Kumar said defending the move. 

He said that OSM was initially started in 2014, but was discontinued due to technical issues, and that higher education bodies such as the Mumbai University, Delhi University, Visvesvaraya Technological University, and ICAI use it currently.

The technical issues that the government faced then was with large scale scanning of the pages. “Answer sheets had to be pulled apart and they got mixed, and now we have the capacity to scan at a larger scale,” Rahul Singh told reporters.

Detailing the process, the officials said that practice was done prior to implementing the system. Singh said that on January 20-21 this year, a dry run was done in five schools.

“Then, on February 9, multiple teachers were invited, including teachers from CBSE schools and private schools and feedback from them were taken to upgrade the system. On February 13, a webinar was undertaken with several stakeholders where they were taught to evaluate answer sheets from last year,” Singh told reporters.

"Detailed instructions are also given for step-marking," he added.  

Kumar said that the system brings in transparency and eliminates errors in totalling marks.

He added that, earlier, CBSE conducted evaluation or marking generally within the geographical jurisdiction of the respective regional offices, and now, answer sheets can be evaluated even outside the regional office’s area. “This has brought greater transparency and objectivity into the evaluation process,” he added. 

The secondary education body has been facing heat over the news system, with criticisms coming in that the pass percentage fell due to the checking (from 88 per cent last year to 85 per cent this year) and that both teachers and students were not given enough time and resources to prepare for it.

To counter it, the CBSE has also launched a tele-counselling facility (1800-11-8004 ), as well as an email ([e-mail]) to tackle complaints.