Amid concerns, Ministry of Education says on-screen marking foolproof, international norm

New Delhi: The Ministry of Education on Sunday dismissed concerns about On-Screen Marking (OSM) affecting students' scores in CBSE class 12 exams and announced that the revaluation and answer sheet verification charges have been reduced to Rs 100 each.

According to officials, the decision has been taken to ease the anxiety of students. They, however, maintained that the OSM is foolproof and a norm followed internationally to conduct transparent evaluation.

At a press conference, School Education Secretary, Ministry of Education, Sanjay Kumar said, "98 lakh sheets scanned were for class 12, three levels of security were followed during the process. It was found that despite repeated scanning, there were still some legibility issues because the ink used in some answer sheets was of a very light colour. Even after scanning, those scripts could not be made fully legible." "In such cases, the examiners were instructed to evaluate the scripts manually and award marks accordingly. More than 13,000 such answer sheets were separately identified and manually checked. After manual evaluation, the marks obtained were entered into the system.

"Special attention was given to the security levels and related issues so that the marking carried out through on-screen evaluation remained accurate, completely transparent and fair," he added.

Kumar's comments came amid concerns being raised by students and parents that the drop in pass percentage in class 12 and scores is due to the OSM, which was conducted for the first time for CBSE board exams.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has reduced the revaluation and answer sheet verification charges to help ease students' anxiety.

"The CBSE has decided this time that if students wish to view their answer sheets, they can do so by paying a fee of Rs 100 instead of Rs 700. If they want verification or validation of the answer sheet, that too will cost Rs 100 instead of Rs 500. If they want any particular answer rechecked, the fee will be Rs 25 per question," Kumar said.

"We have decided that if during re-evaluation, a student's marks increase, then the amount paid for re-evaluation will be refunded to the student," he said.