The Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) decided to introduce on-screen marking of answer sheets for classes
tenth and twelfth in the coming sessions .
This will
help a great deal in the evaluation process and minimize the scope for errors.
The board also plans to bring in the digital system in two phases.
The first
phase that will start in March 2013 with class tenth answer sheets , is likely
to shoot up as many as three lakhs in number.
As class
tenth board examinations are optional , the number of answer sheets to be
handled in the first set would be much lesser than the total work load.
The
digitization will kick start in March 2013 with Class X answer-sheets. The
answer-sheets will be scanned and later put on screen for the examiners , who
will later use the concerned software.
How
does OMS work?
The
answer script is scanned and uploaded on the server of four-five schools that
have been identified as evaluation centres by the CBSE.
Each
examiner for English (core) will be given a unique user ID and password, with which
he/she can access only those answer scripts allotted to him/her for evaluation.
An
examiner will visit an evaluation centre, where he/she will be given a PC on
which they can access their designated answer booklets with their user ID.
Examiners
will evaluate their answer booklet on the computer screen and enter the
corresponding marks in a separate window.
At
the end of evaluation, the software will point out if the examiner has
forgotten to evaluate any answer. The software will calculate the total marks.
Each
examiner is expected to evaluate 20-25 answer booklets in one day.
What
are the Benefits?
There
is no totalling error as marks are calculated by the software. There is no
scope of any answer remaining unevaluated in the booklet as the software will
point out if the examiner has omitted an answer by mistake. In the manual
process, wrong marks can be entered at the time of transferring total marks
from the answer booklet to the award list. With OMS, errors at this level are
eliminated. Since each answer booklet has a unique serial number, the OMS
software can enable easy retrieval of the answer script.
