Double scrutiny of students scoring 90% plus in board exams

In a first, UP Board toppers will undergo a double scrutiny before the declaration of results.

Taking a lesson from the Bihar Board’s embarrassment in 2016, the UP Board for Secondary Education has decided to ensure that all intermediate and high school students scoring 90% and above in the written exams will get their answer sheets re-examined at the evaluation centre by a senior examiner.

As a result, answer sheets of any high school student who scores 63 marks or above out of a maximum of 70 marks will have their answer copies rechecked by the evaluation centre’s deputy chief examiner, who besides ensuring proper evaluation would also put his own comments on the copies before the marks are accepted as final.

The same process will be undertaken for the class 12 students scoring 90% or above in any paper.

Confirming the double evaluation of toppers, secretary of UP Board Shail Yadav said, “The decision to get the answer sheets of students rechecked has been taken to ensure fair and error- free evaluation that does justice to an individual student’s performance and also prevents the possibility of any error on the part of the examiner.”

Instructions in this regard were sent to evaluation centres, Yadav added.

The mandatory provision for re-evaluation of the students scoring 90% and above has duly been included in the instructions regarding an evaluation of the board exam answer sheets prepared by the UP Board officials and these are now being sent to the designated evaluation centres spread across the state.

The steps, sources say, have been taken to counter possible external influence on examiners by either copying mafia or even some schools desperate to illegally improve its showing in the board exams with an aim to attract more admissions on their campus.

This time for the evaluation of around 58 lakh students appearing in class 10 and class 12 examinationss, the largest examination body of Asia, the UP Board will be deputing around 1.5 lakh teachers as examiners at around 250 evaluation centres spread across the state.

The board exams this year are set to conclude by April 21 and the evaluation process is scheduled to start from April end.