Evaluation errors: CBSE cracks whip on 70 teachers in Bihar, Jharkhand

PATNA: The regional office (Bihar-Jharkhand) of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has directed the affiliated schools to suspend teachers for allotting wrong marks to the students of classes X and XII in the 2019 exams.
Altogether 70 examiners and coordinators had entered wrong marks, which were later corrected at the regional office.
According to CBSE sources, after the answersheets were checked, examiners uploaded the marks to a computer software and sent them to the regional offices.Before declaration of results, a team of head examiners rechecked the marks and identified mistakes in more than 240 copies, which were mostly from Patna.
One of the head examiners said, “There were several errors in the marking pattern. Besides, low marks were allotted to some students, who had scored well.”
Sources at the CBSE’s regional office told this newspaper on Thursday that notices regarding wrong allotment of marks were sent to the schools last week. “This is probably for the first time that the board is taking such a strict step against the examiners and coordinators,” an official said.
The schools concerned have been asked to take immediate disciplinary action, including 15 or 30-day suspension, against the teachers within 10 days. If they repeat the mistake, they may even lose their jobs.
CBSE’s city coordinator Rajiv Ranjan Sinha hailed the board’s decision. “Teachers will now be more careful while uploading the students’ marks to the computer software,” Sinha said.
St Michael’s High School principal Fr Armstrong Edison SJ also welcomed the initiative. He said, “Students should get the marks they deserve.”
In 2018, 45 teachers of the Patna region had faced disciplinary action and were blacklisted for errors in tabulation work.