Vivek Saxena,
Ayodhya
Controversy in any examination in the country is a matter of serious concern. The situation is becoming such that conducting the examination without any controversy is now becoming a rare occurrence. The latest and most worrying example is the crisis with the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system recently introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class 12 assessment. The technology which was introduced with the claim of making the evaluation process fast, transparent and error-free, has today become a source of mental torture for millions of students and parents.
In such a situation, the question arises whether the future of students will continue to be played with like this? After finding major technical glitches in the OSM system, the government removed CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta with immediate effect. A high level committee has been formed to thoroughly investigate the entire matter. The committee has also been directed to submit the detailed investigation report to the Department of Personnel and Training within a month. The company responsible (Koempt Edutech) is facing blacklisting and heavy fine action, but this is not a permanent solution to the problem.
Looking at the current situation, it would not be wrong to say that the examination and results season in the country is now no less than a nightmare for the students. The board’s objective behind recently implementing the ‘On-Screen Marking’ (OSM) system for evaluation of CBSE Class 12 answer sheets was to make the evaluation process faster and transparent. Under the system, after scanning the answer sheets of the students and uploading them online, teachers evaluate them on the computer screen, but this time the discrepancies that came to light as soon as the results were declared have put a big question mark on the entire evaluation system and its security.
After the declaration of results, around four lakh students applied to see their scanned copies. This figure in itself shows the gap between student dissatisfaction and the functioning of the board. According to media reports, the complaints lodged by students include blurring of scanned copies, changing the order of pages and missing step marking in the assessment. Many students allege that their marks are not in accordance with the answers written in the answer sheet. Some students also claimed that the answer sheet shown for evaluation was not their answer sheet at all.
In such a situation, when the entire process is digital, then such ‘human and technical’ errors destroy the credibility of the system. Media reports and internal investigations have revealed that the hastily implemented system was not extensively pilot tested (dry run). The rules were also relaxed in the tender process, the quality of scanning was compromised. In such a situation, when the very foundation of evaluation is weak, then how can the accuracy of the examination results be expected? Initially, the Board and the service provider company tried to explain away these flaws by saying that they were sporadic, but when the revaluation portal itself came to a standstill and data breach (security lapse) came to light, it became clear that the problem was more at the administrative and policy level than the technical one.
When the government gave the affected students an opportunity to present their views before the parliamentary committee, the question and seven-page presentation of class 12 student Sarthak before the parliamentary committee on Tuesday exposed that the rules were ignored in the selection of the digital examination service provider company. Even the provisions for blacklisting a company leaking data were weakened by changing the tender conditions. If a company’s track record was already bad, then why did the country’s largest education board leave the future of millions of students in its hands?
This matter gained so much importance that the Central Government had to take strict action. A special committee has been formed to examine the procurement and implementation process of OSM services, but can it compensate for the mental stress of lakhs of students who are going through a period of uncertainty since the exam results? Is merely removing top officials and imposing fine on the service provider company a permanent solution to this problem? No, it is not so. Now the priority of the government and the education ministry should be to provide justice to the aggrieved students who are wandering on the revaluation portal due to technical glitches.
There should be a strict investigation of the culprits involved in the entire matter, so that in future technology becomes a means of improvement and not a cause of distress for the students. Also, the Ministry of Education and CBSE will have to learn a lesson from this crisis due to leaking of papers of competitive examinations, allegations in examination results etc. Technology should be used to improve and make education transparent, not to make it a risky game for students. In the name of reform, one should avoid imposing any digital system at the national level without prior preparation. This OSM glitch is not just a technical glitch, but also a warning to the future that accountability and security must be paramount in modern education reforms.
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