1,200 teachers penalised, blacklisted for bungling SSLC paper evaluation

Hundreds of teachers will pay for bungling the evaluation of SSLC answer scripts.

The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has blacklisted and penalised 1,200 teachers for evaluation errors in answer sheets of SSLC exams held two years ago. They will be barred from this year’s evaluation which begins on April 23 at 234 centres. More than 65,000 teachers are expected to take part in the exercise.

In 2021, answer sheets were not evaluated because the SSLC exam was held only for two days (three subjects in each paper) in view of the Covid-19 lockdown. The papers had multiple-choice questions, and answers were computed by KSEEB staff. All students were promoted.

Teachers whose evaluation was off by six or more marks have been penalised and blacklisted. The penalty ranges from Rs 800 to Rs 2,000 depending on the difference in the marks awarded during revaluation. Only teachers who pay the penalty will be considered for evaluation duties next year.

The decision comes weeks after the Legislative Council debated the issue during the Budget session of the legislature. Several MLCs had asked the government to blacklist teachers for messing up evaluations. Minister for Primary and Secondary Education BC Nagesh had promised action.

The Karnataka State Government Secondary School Assistant Masters’ Association welcomed the move but asked the KSEEB to give a “little leeway” to evaluators who commit minor errors, its president H K Manjunath said.

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