Teachers fined for SSLC marks goof-up

Costly gaffe

The evaluation of answer scripts for Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) March 2019 examinations conducted by the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has proven costly for some teachers.

Some of the teachers who evaluated the SSLC examinations during March/April 2019 were penalised for improper counting of marks and also for entering wrong marks on the online portal.

According to information available from KSEEB, over 100 such teachers were fined Rs 2,500 each for entering wrong data. Interestingly, these teachers entered the details of the number of sheets in the answer script instead of the marks scored by students, thereby putting students into unnecessary hardship.

The error came to light after anguished students applied for revaluation.

Acknowledging the gaffe and determined to prevent a repeat, the board officials have decided to crack the whip on teachers.

V Sumangala, director KSEEB said, “It is not that we put them on the online system without training them. The exercise was done during June 2018 supplementary examinations too.”

This is for the first time the board switched to full-fledged online entry of marks from the March/April 2019 final examinations. According to officials, for this, evaluators were provided proper training and the system was tried out in the June 2018 supplementary examinations.

“While entering the total marks, some teachers counted and entered the number of answer sheets in the script instead of marks scored by students. Online entry of marks is not a big task,” says board officials.

During the March/April 2019 examinations, over 70,000 teachers took part in evaluation work.